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Optical properties of cirrus transition zones over China detected by CALIOP

  • Special Collection on Meteorology and Environment over the Tibetan Plateau and Adjacent Regions
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Abstract

A transition zone near cirrus lateral boundaries can be detected by CALIOP (cloud–aerosol lidar with orthogonal polarization). In the present study, for such transition zones over China, a number of optical properties, such as the backscatter coefficient and depolarization ratio, showed transitional characteristics between cirrus and clear sky. The stepped horizontal profile showed sharp changes in particle number and morphology between cirrus clouds and clear sky. The color ratio, however, was unable to show cirrus transition features because of the low signal-to-noise ratio. Typical ice particles presented a color ratio of 0.55–1.25 and a depolarization ratio of greater than 0.12, which were significantly higher than those of clear sky. Therefore, optical properties in transition took the form of stepwise horizontal profiles. The proportion of typical-featured particles also demonstrated a stepped horizontal profile similar to the optical characteristics, but the relationship between the proportion and the optical characteristics was not uniform in the cirrus clouds, transition zone, and clear sky. Therefore, the optical changes in the transition zone were caused by not only the change in particle concentration, but also the change in the particles themselves. The probability density distribution of the transition-zone widths showed a positive skewness distribution, and transition zones with widths of 3–5 km occurred most frequently. Overall, transition-zone width decreased with increasing temperature and increased with increasing vertical and horizontal wind speeds. This trend demonstrated independence with the direction of the vertical and horizontal winds. These observations implied that the transitional features were caused by material exchange, such as entrainment and turbulent transport, near the cirrus lateral boundaries, and by the phase transformation of particles, such as sublimation.

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Acknowledgments

All figures were created by using the NCAR Command Language (NCL) (2016). The CALIOP products were downloaded from the Atmospheric Science Data Center at NASA Langley Research Center of the United States.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Atmospheric Science, Chengdu University of Information Technology/Plateau Atmospheric and Environment Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu, 610225, China

    Hongke Cai, Quanliang Chen, Xiao Feng, Xin Tie, Ranting Tao & Kepiao Xu

  2. School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Hongke Cai & Yunfei Fu

Authors
  1. Hongke Cai
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  2. Yunfei Fu
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  3. Quanliang Chen
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  4. Xiao Feng
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  5. Xin Tie
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  6. Ranting Tao
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  7. Kepiao Xu
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Correspondence to Hongke Cai.

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Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41405031 and 41475037), China Meteorological Administration Special Public Welfare Research Fund (GYHY201506013), Sichuan Youth Fund (2014JQ0019), and Scientific Research Fund of Chengdu University of Information Technology (KYTZ201504 and J201519).

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Cai, H., Fu, Y., Chen, Q. et al. Optical properties of cirrus transition zones over China detected by CALIOP. J Meteorol Res 31, 576–585 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-017-6044-3

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