loading page

Inherent Properties of Clouds in the PBL Derived from Multi-angle Spectro-Polarimetric Imaging at the “Edge of Space:” New Capabilities of JPL’s AirMSPI Sensor on NASA’s Airborne ER-2 Platform
  • +5
  • Anthony Davis,
  • Feng Xu,
  • Gerard van Harten,
  • David Diner,
  • Linda Forster,
  • Aviad Levis,
  • Yoav Schechner,
  • Georgios Matheou
Anthony Davis
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Corresponding Author:anthony.b.davis@jpl.nasa.gov

Author Profile
Feng Xu
University of Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma
Author Profile
Gerard van Harten
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Author Profile
David Diner
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Author Profile
Linda Forster
Ludwig Maximilian University, Ludwig Maximilian University
Author Profile
Aviad Levis
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Author Profile
Yoav Schechner
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Author Profile
Georgios Matheou
University of Connecticut, University of Connecticut
Author Profile

Abstract

Commonly-occurring stratification and synoptic tendencies lead to liquid clouds and warm precipitation processes in the PBL over large portions of the globe. The climate is so sensitive to these low-level clouds that they are identified in IPCC reports as major uncertainty sources for climate prediction; their representation in GCMs thus needs improvement. PBL clouds have therefore been scrutinized in numerous field campaigns over both ocean and land. The main method for measuring clouds in field campaigns is in-situ airborne probing and, though these data are invaluable, it is widely recognized that spatial and temporal sampling is innately poor. We then turn to remote sensing as a way of drastically improving spatial sampling since it delivers cloud properties over more than a line-of-flight through 3+1D space. The obvious tradeoff is, however, generally complicated connections between remotely-measured radiances and inherent cloud properties of real interest to cloud process modelers. Active remote sensing from below or above the clouds improves vastly over in-situ sampling, but its outcome remains confined to a “ribbon” of vertical profiles ordered in time (from below) or space (from above). Passive imaging has the complimentary problem of delivering a potentially wide horizontal swath of cloud properties, but integrated along the vertical. At least that is the conventional wisdom when it comes to the solar spectrum, where observed radiances from clouds are dominated by multiple scattering. Based on recent results from AirMSPI imaging at 20 km altitude, we challenge the perceived limitation of passive shortwave radiometry to deliver only column-integrated properties. We demonstrate that multi-pixel exploitation of multi-angle spectro-polarimteric imaging at solar wavelengths can be used to extract not only maps of microphysical properties but also 3D cloud structure for both PBL-topped stratiform layers and vertically-developed 3D clouds in convective regimes. A key realization is: airborne and space-based sensors offer radically different spatial and angular sampling opportunities with unique advantages in both cases. We look forward to future PBL-specific missions in space for their global reach. At the same time, there is a clear case for deploying high-altitude imagers in all future campaigns.