Mid-tropospheric supercooled liquid water observation consistent with nucleation induced by a mountain lee wave

[1] A case study relative to the observation of unexpected liquid water in an apparently cloudless atmosphere is presented. Microwave radiometer profiler observations on 14 April 2008 at Boulder, Colorado, USA, showed an increase in the liquid water path with values higher than 0.05 mm and corresponding relative humidity saturation from 4.75 to 6.75 km above the ground level in profiles retrieved using a neural network algorithm. The formation of small supercooled droplets identified in the microwave retrieval of the temperature and relative humidity vertical profiles may result from nucleation stimulated by a mountain lee wave. The presented analysis reveals the existence of supercooled liquid water in the mid troposphere related to a wave activity that occurred in a sky condition classifiable as ‘‘clear’’ and describes an atmospheric scenario consistent with the observation of the so-called twilight zone. Citation: Madonna, F., F. Russo, R. Ware, and G. Pappalardo (2009), Mid-tropospheric supercooled liquid water observation consistent with nucleation induced by a mountain lee wave, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L18802, doi:10.1029/ 2009GL039545.