Observation-based Understanding of the Cloud Properties over East China Region

Abstract:

Cloud properties over East China are described based on observations from satellite (MODIS), ground site and aircraft. Based on satellite observations, 10-year averaged cloud fraction over the whole China region is around 66%, similar to the average value of global, with the largest cloud occurrence in Summer; the cloud fraction increases slightly during last 10 years; more clouds are found at southeast region than at northwest region; cloud droplet effective radius shows the smallest values around 10 um at mid-latitude regions and largest values at high latitude regions; further PDF analysis shows that cloud droplet effective radius demonstrates a bimodal distribution with maximum occurrences around 10-16 um. Ground site observations show that cloud fraction at Taihu site is around 65% for 2013, consistent with that found by MODIS at the closest grid to the site; more clouds are found at night than during day. In-situ aircraft observations over Huanghua city show that cloud droplet effective radius increases with height, with values from 3-5 um at low altitude, 7-9 um at mid altitude, to 10-13 um at high altitude. While the aircraft observation sample volume is limited, the in-situ observed cloud properties demonstrate that cloud droplet re increases with height, consistent with many findings by in-situ aircraft at other locations. The consistency of satellite observed cloud droplet re between East China and other regions is likely caused by the fact that the cloud properties observed by satellite is more representative of those clouds at high altitudes which are weakly affected by the aerosols within the boundary layers. On the other hand, the cloud droplet re at the cloud bases over East China is much smaller than those found at other locations, likely demonstrating the significant impacts by the heavy aerosol loadings at this region. Further studies with more site and aircraft observations over East China are needed.