Climatology of Cloud Phase, Cloud Radiative Effects and Precipitation Properties over the Tibetan Plateau

Remote Sensing

Guoyin Wang¹  Min Zhang²  Yarong Li³  Yuxin Zhao³  Jing Wang³  Bida Jian³  Jiming Li³  Husi Letu⁴ 

[1] Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences & Institute of Atmospheric Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200000, China;Inner Mongolia Institute of Meteorological Sciences, Inner Mongolia Provincial Meteorological Bureau, Hohhot 010000, China;Key Laboratory for Semi-Arid Climate Change of the Ministry of Education, College of Atmospheric Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China;State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100000, China;

关键词: cloud phase;    cloud radiative effect;    cloud heating rate;    precipitation frequency;    cloud fraction;    Tibet plateau;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs13030363

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Current passive sensors fail to accurately identify cloud phase, thus largely limiting the quantification of radiative contributions and precipitation of different cloud phases over the Tibet Plateau (TP), especially for the mixed-phase and supercooled water clouds. By combining the 4 years of (January 2007–December 2010) cloud phase (2B-CLDCLASS-LIDAR), radiative fluxes (2B-FLXHR-LIDAR), and precipitation (2C-PRECIP-COLUMN) products from CloudSat, this study systematically quantifies the radiative contribution of cloud phases and precipitation over the TP. Statistical results indicate that the ice cloud frequently occurs during the cold season, while mixed-phase cloud fraction is more frequent during the warm season. In addition, liquid clouds exhibit a weak seasonal variation, and the relative cloud fraction is very low, but supercooled water cloud has a larger cloud distribution (the value reaches about 0.24) than those of warm water clouds in the eastern part of the TP during the warm season. Within the atmosphere, the ice cloud has the largest radiative contribution during the cold season, the mixed-phase cloud is the second most important cloud phase for the cloud radiative contribution during the warm season, and supercooled water clouds’ contribution is particularly important during the cold season. In particular, the precipitation frequency over the TP is mainly dominated by the ice and mixed-phase clouds and is larger over the southeastern part of the TP during the warm season.

【 授权许可】

Unknown