Characteristics and Seasonal Variations of Cirrus Clouds from Polarization Lidar Observations at a 30°N Plain Site

Lidar Observations of Polar Mesospheric Clouds at South Pole: Seasonal Variations

Polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) were observed above the geographic South Pole by an Fe Boltzmann temperature lidar from 11 Dec 99 to 24 Feb 00. During this 76-day period 297 h of observations were made on 33 different days and PMCs were detected 66.5% of the time. The mean PMC peak backscatter ratio, peak volume backscatter coefficient, total backscatter coefficient, layer centroid altitude, an...

Understanding Seasonal Variability in Thin Cirrus Clouds from Continuous Mplnet Observations at Gsfc in 2012

Optically thin cirrus cloud (optical depth < 0.3) net radiative forcing represents one of the primary uncertainties in climate feedback, as sub-visible clouds play a fundamental role in atmospheric radiation balance and climate change. A lidar is a very sensitive optical device to detect clouds with an optical depth as low as 10. In this paper we assess the daytime net radiative forcing of subv...

Lidar studies of interannual, seasonal, and diurnal variations of polar mesospheric clouds at the South Pole

[1] Polar mesospheric clouds (PMC) were observed by an Fe Boltzmann temperature lidar at the South Pole in the 1999–2000 and 2000–2001 austral summer seasons. We report the study of interannual, seasonal, and diurnal variations of PMC using more than 430 h of PMC data. The most significant differences between the two seasons are that in the 2000– 2001 season, the PMC mean total backscatter coef...

Optical and geometrical characteristics of cirrus clouds over a Southern European lidar station

Optical and geometrical characteristics of cirrus clouds over Thessaloniki, Greece (40.6 N, 22.9 E) have been determined from the analysis of lidar and radiosonde measurements performed during the period from 2000 to 2006. Cirrus clouds are generally observed in a mid-altitude region ranging from 8.6 to 13 km, with mid-cloud temperatures in the range from −65 to −38C. The cloud thickness genera...

Optical and geometrical characteristics of cirrus clouds over a mid-latitude lidar station