A24D-01
Towards improved understanding of cloud influence on polar surface energy budgets using CloudSat and CALIPSO observations
Tuesday, 15 December 2015: 16:00
3004 (Moscone West)
Jennifer E Kay1, Tristan S L'Ecuyer2, Elin McIlhattan2, Hélène Chepfer3 and Ariel Morrison1, (1)University of Colorado Boulder, Atmospheric and Oceanographic Sciences and CIRES, Boulder, CO, United States, (2)University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI, United States, (3)Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique Palaiseau, Palaiseau Cedex, France
Abstract:
The spaceborne radar CloudSat and the spaceborne lidar platform Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) have provided nearly a decade of groundbreaking observations of polar cloud and precipitation processes. Specifically relevant to this AGU session, the CloudSat 2B-FLXHR-LIDAR product (hereafter, 2BFLX) is an observationally constrained radiative flux and heating rate calculation that leverages constraints from A-train observations, including CloudSat+CALIPSO. The surface radiative fluxes calculated within 2BFLX represent an important advance because unlike top-of-atmosphere (TOA) fluxes, surface radiative fluxes cannot be directly measured by satellite, yet directly impact surface heating, sea ice melt, and ice sheet mass balance. In this presentation, we will highlight the influence of supercooled liquid on polar surface radiation budgets constrained within 2BFLX data. We will also use 2BFLX data in concert with the fully attenuated signal and cloud phase information from CALIPSO as an observational constraint on polar cloud-climate feedbacks in the Community Earth System Model (CESM).
