Ice water content of Arctic, midlatitude, and tropical cirrus

Schiller, C.; Afchine, A.; Spelten, N.; Krämer, M.; Sitnikov, N.

doi:10.1029/2008JD010342

Journal Article

PreJuSER-58068

Ice water content of Arctic, midlatitude, and tropical cirrus

Schiller, C.FZJ* ; Krämer, M.FZJ* ; Afchine, A.FZJ* ; Spelten, N.FZJ* ; Sitnikov, N.

2008
Union Washington, DC

Journal of Geophysical Research 113, D24208 (2008) [10.1029/2008JD010342]

This record in other databases:

Please use a persistent id in citations: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/20408 doi:10.1029/2008JD010342

Abstract: In situ measurements of total water have been obtained during several airborne field experiments in the Arctic (POLSTAR 1997 and 1998; EUPLEX/ENVISAT 2003), at midlatitudes (ENVISAT 2002, Cirrus 2003 and 2004, TROCCINOX 2005), and in the tropics (APE-THESEO 1999, TROCCINOX/ENVISAT 2005, SCOUT-O3 2005) in 52 flights in cirrus using the Julich Lyman-alpha fluorescence hygrometer FISH. For a subset of 28 flights, the measurements are complemented by gas phase measurements of H2O. From the data set obtained in these experiments, the ice water content (IWC) in cirrus clouds is derived using two different approaches and functions of the minimum, mean, median, and maximum IWC are provided. The data are analyzed as a function of temperature in the range 183-250 K for Arctic, midlatitudinal, and tropical regions thus extending previous climatologies to much lower temperatures and lower detectable IWC. For each temperature, IWC covers a broad band, decreasing with temperature over the whole temperature range. In the tropics, several events of enhanced ice water content are observed which are related to recent impact of convection.

Keyword(s): J

Classification:

Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences

Note: We would like to thank R. Bauer, J. Beuermann, M. Blasner, O. Bujok, N. Eicke, A. Mangold, S. Rohs, S. Schlicht, G. Shur, F. H. Silva dos Santos, A. Schonfeld, V. Tan, and M. Zoger who were involved in the experimental work during the different campaigns, as well as the aircraft teams of DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, GfD Hohn, enviscope Frankfurt, and MDB Moscow and the coordinators of the different field experiments. Funding for the campaigns was granted by the BMBF within the Ozonforschungsprogramm and the program "Angewandte Klima- und Atmospharenforschung,'' by the EU DG XII within Framework Programmes 5 and 6, and by ESA within the ENVISAT validation program. Water vapor measurement by FLASH and data preparation was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research grants 06-05-64165-a and 07-05-00486-a.

Research Program(s):