Unique manifestations of mixed‐phase cloud microphysics over Ross Island and the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica

Abstract

AbstractSpaceborne radar and lidar observations from the CloudSat and CALIPSO satellites are used to compare seasonal variations in the microphysical and radiative properties of clouds over Ross Island, Antarctica, with two contrasting Arctic atmospheric observatories located in Barrow, Alaska, and Summit, Greenland. At Ross Island, downstream from recurrent intrusions of marine air over the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and eastern Ross Ice Shelf, clouds exhibit a tendency toward the greatest geometrical thickness and coldest temperatures in summer, the largest average ice water content, IWC, at low altitude during summer and autumn, the most abundant IWC at cold mixed‐phase temperatures (−40°C <T< −20°C), and the strongest impact from ice water on the surface energy budget year round, all with likely origins in orographic lifting of marine air over complex ice sheet and mountainous terrain. Clouds over Barrow form and evolve in a contrastingly warm and moist atmosphere and on average contain the largest liquid water content and ice and liquid water effective particle radii, re, year round. In contrast, clouds observed atop the central Greenland Ice Sheet are relatively tenuous, containing the smallest IWC and ice re of all sites.