CloudSat instrument requirements as determined from ECMWF forecasts of global cloudiness

CloudSat Radar Instrument Design and Development Status

The Cloud Profiling Radar is the key science instrument for the CloudSat Mission to acquire a global data set of vertical atmospheric cloud structure and its variability. CPR is a 94-GHz nadir-looking radar that measures the power backscattered by clouds as a function of distance from the radar. This sensor is expected to provide cloud measurements at a 500-m vertical resolution and a 1.5-km ho...

The impact of airborne Doppler lidar observations on ECMWF forecasts

Global hydrometeor occurrence as observed by CloudSat: Initial observations from summer 2006

[1] Measurements of global hydrometeor coverage and occurrence frequencies as observed by the cloud radar on CloudSat are summarized using data collected during Summer 2006. CloudSat was launched on 28 April 2006 and began collecting data routinely on 7 June 2006. In this article we document the distribution of cloudiness from the ITCZ to the Polar regions as observed by CloudSat during the fir...

A model study of global variability in mesospheric cloudiness

We have performed microphysical calculations of mesospheric cloudiness which are driven by output (vertical wind, water vapor mixing ratio and temperature) from a two-dimensional (2D) global chemical/dynamical model. The variations in the 2D model output drive variations in the simulated clouds which can be compared with cloud observations. The specific cloud observables we model are ice conten...

Global Warming: Forecasts by Scientists versus Scientific Forecasts

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Working Group One, a panel of experts established by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme, issued its Fourth Assessment Report. The Report included predictions of dramatic increases in average world temperatures over the next 92 years and serious harm resulting from the predicted temperature i...