Abstract
Clouds play a critical role in adjusting the global radiation budget and hydrological cycle; however, obtaining accurate information on the cloud base height (CBH) is still challenging. In this study, based on Lidar and aircraft soundings, we investigated the features of the CBH and determined the thresholds of the environmental relative humidity (RH) corresponding to the observed CBHs over Southeast China from October 2017 to September 2018. During the observational period, the CBHs detected by Lidar/aircraft were commonly higher in cold months and lower in warm months; in the latter, 75.91% of the CBHs were below 2000 m. Overall, the RHs at the cloud base were mainly distributed between 70 and 90% for the clouds lower than 1000 m, in which the most concentrated RH was approximately 80%. In addition, for the clouds with a cloud base higher than 1000 m, the RH thresholds decreased dramatically with increasing CBH, where the RH thresholds at cloud bases higher than 2000 m could be lower than 60%. On average, the RH thresholds for determining the CBHs were the highest (72.39%) and lowest (63.56%) in the summer and winter, respectively, over Southeast China. Therefore, to determine the CBH, a specific threshold of RH is needed. Although the time period covered by the collected CBH data from Lidar/aircraft is short, the above analyses can provide some verification and evidence for using the RH threshold to determine the CBH.
Highlights
Clouds can adjust the Earth’s energy budget and hydrological cycle through dynamic and thermal processes [1,2,3] and further drive the climate to change globally [4]
Combining the relative humidity (RH) profiles from ERA-Interim data, the RH thresholds were calculated corresponding to the observed cloud base height (CBH)
CBH data detected by Lidar, pilot balloon, and aircraft over Southeast China during the period from October 2017 to September 2018 were analyzed in this study
Summary
Clouds can adjust the Earth’s energy budget and hydrological cycle through dynamic and thermal processes [1,2,3] and further drive the climate to change globally [4]. The cloud profile is poorly understood at present and remains a primary source of uncertainty in global weather and climate research [24]. The cloud base height (CBH), which is an important parameter of the cloud vertical profile, largely determines the energy exchanges between the clouds and surface. Retrieving the CBH generally relies primarily on satellite and ground-based observations. Space-borne active satellite remote sensing (e.g., the cloud profile radar (CPR) mounted on CloudSat and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) aboard Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Satellite Observation (CALIPSO)) has allowed cloud profile information to be obtained globally [27,28,29]. A comparison with the ground-based active remote sensing of clouds revealed large uncertainties in the CBH from satellite observations [37]. Obtaining information on the CBH with high accuracy is urgent
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