Modeling, simulation, and comparison study of cirrus cloud ice crystals

Jorge M. Villa; Sandra L. Cruz-Pol; Jose G. Colom-Ustariz; Stephen M. Sekelsky

doi:10.1117/12.463034

18 April 2003 Modeling, simulation, and comparison study of cirrus cloud ice crystals

Jorge M. Villa, Sandra L. Cruz-Pol, Jose G. Colom-Ustariz, Stephen M. Sekelsky

Proceedings Volume 4882, Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere VII; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.463034
Event: International Symposium on Remote Sensing, 2002, Crete, Greece

Abstract

Various methods and techniques to estimate ice crystals radar response have been developed to study the structure of cirrus clouds. Most methods assume a spherical shape for the ice crystals. This assumption leads to mistakes on the parameter estimation related to the particles' size. In this work, we modeled the shape of ice particles found in cirrus cloud as measured by airborne instruments, specifically ice bullets. These can be found depending on the temperature and cloud altitude, isolated or in groups of two or more bullets, called bullet rosettes. The model of the bullets was developed using the parameters obtained by airborne measurements from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Video Ice Particle Sampler (VIPS). This is an airborne instrument that takes samples of the cirrus cloud particles sizes. With these sample parameters we created a bullet function in DDSCAT with the actual shape of the bullets. This software allows us to create irregular models of particles using the Discrete Dipole Approximation method. With this model we can analyze the backscattering produced by the bullet and rosette model or reflectivity and compute the total volume backscattering coefficient from the cirrus clouds. Various models of ice crystal habits are compared.

Citation Download Citation

Jorge M. Villa, Sandra L. Cruz-Pol, Jose G. Colom-Ustariz, and Stephen M. Sekelsky "Modeling, simulation, and comparison study of cirrus cloud ice crystals", Proc. SPIE 4882, Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere VII, (18 April 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.463034

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