Abstract
Abstract. Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) which is analogous to Radio Detection And Ranging (RADAR), has become an important and unique technology for atmospheric research and applications. The technology is widely used for the remote sensing of the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, vegetation and the characteristics of Earth’s topography. Remote sensing of atmosphere, for its structure, composition and dynamics, is one of the proven applications of the lidar systems. More importantly the lidar technique is applied for the study of clouds, aerosols and minor constituents in the atmosphere. It provides the information on the above with good spatial and temporal resolutions and accuracy. The high altitude cirrus clouds which play an important role in the Earth’s radiative budget and global climate can be studied by using the LIDAR system. These clouds absorb long-wave outgoing radiation from Earth’s surface while reflecting part of the incoming short-wave solar radiation. Lidar measurements are useful in deriving the altitude, top height, bottom height and the optical properties of cirrus clouds, which are essential in understanding the cloud-radiation effects. The optical depth, the effective lidar ratio and the depolarization of the clouds are also derived by inverting the lidar signals from the cirrus clouds. In this paper we present the results on the lidar derived optical and microphysical properties of the cirrus clouds at a tropical station Gadanki (13.5°N, 79.2°E) India during two year period from 2009 to210. The seasonal variations of the cloud properties during the observation period are presented and discussed with reference to earlier period.
Highlights
The impact of cirrus clouds is very complex due to their influence on both incoming solar radiations and outgoing radiation from the Earth
The lidar system is aligned to make the complete overlapping between the transmitter and receiver at a height of about 4 km, so as to avoid the intense backscattered signals from the low altitude clouds and aerosols.[17] days of cirrus cloud observation data covering the winter, summer and monsoon periods are used for the investigations
The back scattered lidar signal received from the cirrus clouds by the lidar system is used to characterize the cirrus clouds
Summary
The high altitude cirrus clouds absorb long-wave outgoing radiation from Earth’s surface while reflecting short-wave incoming solar radiation and thereby altering the radiative budget of atmosphere. Cirrus clouds play a key role in the physical and chemical properties of upper troposphere and lower stratosphere by regulating the upper tropospheric humidity. The aerosols, water vapor and temperature in the troposphere and lower stratosphere together play a key role in the formation of cirrus and their properties. As such simultaneous study of aerosols, clouds along with meteorological parameters is important to understand the characteristics of the clouds during a typical monsoon period. The seasonal variations of the cloud properties during the observation period are presented and discussed with reference to earlier period
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