Seasonal vertical distributions of diurnal variation of ice cloud frequency by CATS measurements over a global region (51°S-51°N)

Abstract

Ice clouds can strongly affect the radiation budget through the reflection (absorption) of solar shortwave (longwave) radiation in the Earth-atmosphere system. Unlike water clouds, ice clouds present a longer lifetime in the upper troposphere. Therefore, the vertical patterns of diurnal variation of ice clouds are of very importance to understand climate change in the globe. The present paper investigates the diurnal variation of ice cloud frequency (ICF) from March 2015 to October 2017 over the global scale (51 ° S and 51 ° N) by CATS (Cloud-Aerosol Transport System) LiDAR onboard the International Space Station (ISS) and CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations) LiDAR measurements. Our results suggest that: (1) ICF derived from the CATS and CALIPSO LiDAR presents the similar geographical variations. (2) The vertical distribution of ICF in land area over the North Hemisphere (NH) is found larger than in the South Hemisphere (SH) likely due to the more dust aerosols as ice nuclei to influence ice cloud formation over the NH. (3) ICF at nighttime (00:00–06:00 and 18:00–23:00) exhibits higher value than daytime (06:00–18:00), especially in high altitude (more than 12 km) ice clouds in the tropics. (4) The number of ice cloud samples is higher in spring and winter compared to summer and autumn, and the highest amount of ice cloud samples in spring(winter) occurs during nighttime(daytime) for most hours. These findings provide significant insights that may help improving the ice cloud's representation in climate models.