Cloud and Precipitation Properties Merged Dataset from Vertically Pointing ARM Radars During GOAmazon

Abstract:

The Green Ocean Amazon (GOAmazon) field campaign is in its first year of a two-year deployment in the Amazon Basin to study aerosol and cloud lifecycles as they relate to cloud-aerosol-precipitation interactions. Insights from GOAmazon datasets will fill gaps in our understanding, ultimately improving constraints in tropical rain forest climate model parameterizations. As part of GOAmazon, the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility (AMF) has been collecting a unique set of observations near Manacapuru, Brazil, a site known to experience both the pristine condition of its locale as well as, at times, the effects of the Manaus, Brazil, mega city pollution plume. In order to understand the effects of anthropogenic aerosol on clouds, radiative balance and climate, documentation of cloud and precipitation properties in the absence and presence of the Manaus plume is a necessary complement to the aerosol measurements collected during the campaign. The AMF is uniquely equipped to capture the most complete and continuous record of cloud and precipitation column properties using the UHF (915 MHz) ARM zenith radar (UAZR) and vertically pointing W-Band (95 GHz) ARM Cloud Radar (WACR). Together, these radars provide multiple methods (e.g., moment-based, dual-frequency, and Doppler spectral techniques) to retrieve properties of the cloud field that may be influenced by aerosols. This includes drop size distribution, dynamical and microphysical properties (e.g., vertical air motion, latent heat retrievals), and associated uncertainties. Additional quality assurance is available from independent rain gauge and column platforms. Here, we merge data from the UAZR and WACR (WACR-ARSCL VAP) radars, along with ARM Sounding observations and optical parsivel measurement constraints, to present a first look at select convective and stratiform events, their precipitation properties and statistical profile characterization.