ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-8-1689-2008 Cirrus, contrails, and ice supersaturated regions in high pressure systems at northern mid latitudes Immler F. 1 3 Treffeisen R. 2 Engelbart D. 3 Krüger K. 4 Schrems O. 1 Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany German Meteorological Service (DWD), Richard Aßmann Observatory, Lindenberg, Germany IFM-GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany 20 03 2008 8 6 1689 1699 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/1689/2008/acp-8-1689-2008.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/1689/2008/acp-8-1689-2008.pdf

During the European heat wave summer 2003 with predominant high pressure conditions we performed a detailed study of upper tropospheric humidity and ice particles which yielded striking results concerning the occurrence of ice supersaturated regions (ISSR), cirrus, and contrails. Our study is based on lidar observations and meteorological data obtained at Lindenberg/Germany (52.2° N, 14.1° E) as well as the analysis of the European centre for medium range weather forecast (ECMWF). Cirrus clouds were detected in 55% of the lidar profiles and a large fraction of them were subvisible (optical depth <0.03). Thin ice clouds were particularly ubiquitous in high pressure systems. The radiosonde data showed that the upper troposphere was very often supersaturated with respect to ice. Relating the radiosonde profiles to concurrent lidar observations reveals that the ISSRs almost always contained ice particles. Persistent contrails observed with a camera were frequently embedded in these thin or subvisible cirrus clouds. The ECMWF cloud parametrisation reproduces the observed cirrus clouds consistently and a close correlation between the ice water path in the model and the measured optical depth of cirrus is demonstrated.

 References Abbatt, J. P D., Benz, S., Cziczo, D J., Kanji, Z., Lohmann, U., and Möhler, O.: Solid Ammonium Sulfate Aerosols as Ice Nuclei: Pathway for Cirrus Cloud Formation, Science, 313, 1770–1773, \doi10.1126/science.1129726, 2006. Ansmann, A., Wandinger, U., Riesbel, M., Weitkamp, C., and Michaelis, W.: Independent measurement of extinction and backscatter profiles in cirrus clouds by using a combined Raman elastic-backscatter lidar, Appl. Optics, 31, 7113–7131, 1992. Cziczo, D J., Murphy, D M., Hudson, P K., and Thomson, D S.: Single particle measurements of the chemical composition of cirrus ice residue during CRYSTAL-FACE, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D04201, \doi10.1029/2003JD004032, 2004. Dessler, A E., Palm, S P., Hart, W D., and Spinhirne, J D.: Tropopause-level thin cirrus coverage revealed by ICESat/Geoscience Laser Altimeter System, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D08203, \doi10.1029/2005JD006586, 2006. Gayet, J.-F., Ovarlez, J., Shcherbakov, V., Ström, J., Schumann, U., Minikin, A., Auriol, F., Petzold, A., and Monier, M.: Cirrus cloud microphysical and optical properties at southern and northern midlatitudes during the INCA experiment, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D20206, \doi10.1029/2004JD004803., 2004. Gayet, J F., Shcherbakov, V., Mannstein, H., Minikin, A., Schumann, U., Ström, J., Petzold, A., Ovarlez, J., and Immler, F.: Microphysical and optical properties of mid-latitude cirrus clouds observed in the southern hemisphere during INCA, , Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 132, 2791–2748, \doi10.1256/qj.05.162, 2006. Gierens, K., Schumann, U., Helten, M., Smit, H., and Marenco, A.: A distribution law for relative humidity in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere derived from three years of MOZAIC measurements, Ann. Geophys., 17, 1218–1226, 1999. Goldfarb, L., Keckhut, P., Chanin, M.-L., and Hauchecorne, A.: Cirrus Climatological Results from Lidar Measurements at OHP (44° N, 6° E), Geophys. Res. Lett., 28, 1687–1690, 2001. Heymsfield, A J., Miloshevich, L M., Twohy, C., Sachse, G., and Oltmans, S.: Upper tropospheric relative humidity observations and implications for cirrus ice nucleation, Geophys. Res. Lett., 25, 1343–1346, 1998. Heymsfield, A J., Schmitt, C G., Bansemer, A., Baumgardner, D., Weinstock, E M., Smith, J T., and Sayres, D.: Effective ice particle densities for cold anvil cirrus, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L02101, \doi10.1029/2003GL018311, 2004. Hogan, R., Jakob, C., and Illingworth, A.: Comparison of ECMWF winter-season cloud fraction with radar-derived values, J. Appl. Meteorol., 40, 513–525, 2001. Immler, F. and Schrems, O.: Lidar measurements of cirrus clouds in the northern and southern hemisphere during INCA (55° N, 53° S): A comparative study, Geophys. Res. Lett., 29, 1809, \doi10.1029/2002GL015077, 2002. Immler, F., Krüger, K., Tegtmeier, S., Fujiwara, M., Fortuin, P., Verver, G., and Schrems, O.: Cirrus clouds, humidity, and dehydration in the tropical tropopause layer observed at Paramaribo, Suriname (5.8° N, 55.2° W), J. Geophys. Res., 112, D03209, \doi10.1029/2006JD007440, 2007. Jensen, E., Toon, O., Vay, S., Ovarlez, J., May, R., Bui, T., Twohy, C., Gandrud, B., Pueschel, R., and Schumann, U.: Prevalence of ice-supersaturated regions in the upper troposphere: Implications for optically thin ice cloud formation, J. Geophys. Res., 106, 17 253–17 266, 2001. Kärcher, B.: Properties of subvisible cirrus clouds formed by homogeneous freezing, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 2, 161–170, 2002. Kley, D., Russell III, J., and Phillips, C.: Assessment of upper tropospheric and stratospheric water vapour, Tech. Rep. 1043, SPARC/WMO, 2000. Leiterer, U., Dier, H., and Naebert, T.: Improvements in Radiosonde Humidity Profiles using RS80/RS90 Radiosondes of Vaisala, Beiträge zur Physik der Atmosphäre, 70, 4, 319–336, 1997. Li, J.-L., Waliser, D E., Jiang, J H., Wu, D L., Read, W., Waters, J W., Tompkins, A M., Donner, L J., Chern, J.-D., Tao, W.-K., Atlas, R., Gu, Y., Liou, K N., Genio, A D., Khairoutdinov, M., and Gettelman, A.: Comparisons of EOS MLS cloud ice measurements with ECMWF analyses and GCM simulations: Initial results, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L18710, \doi10.1029/2005GL023788, 2005. Liou, K.-N.: Influence of Cirrus Clouds on Weather and Climate Processes: A Global Perspective, Mon. Weather Rev., 114, 6, 1167–1199, 1986. Meerkötter, R., Schumann, U., Doelling, D R., Minnis, P., Nakajima, T., and Tsushima, Y.: Radiative forcing by contrails, Ann. Geophys., 17, 1080–1094, 1999. Miller, S., Stephens, G., and Beljaars, A.: A validation survey of the ECMWF prognostic cloud scheme using LITE, Geophys. Res. Lett., 26, 1417–1420, 1999. Miloshevich, L. M., Vömel, H., Paukkunen, A., Heymsfield, A., and Oltmans, S.: Characterization and Correction of Relative Humidity Measurements from Vaisala RS80-A Radiosondes at Cold Temperatures, J. Atmos. Oceanic Techn., 18, 135–156, 2001. Miloshevich, L. M., Vömel, H., Whiteman, D. N., Lesht, B. M., Schmidlin, F. J., and Russo, F.: Absolute accuracy of water vapor measurements from six operational radiosonde types launched during AWEX-G and implications for AIRS validation, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D09S10, \doi10.1029/2005JD006083, 2006. Ovarlez, J., Gayet, J.-F., Gierens, K., Ström, J., Ovarlez, H., Auriol, F., Busen, R., and Schumann, U.: Water Vapour Measurements inside cirrus clouds in Northern and Southern hemispheres during INCA, Geophys. Res. Lett., 29, 1813, \doi10.1029/2001GL014440, 2002. Palm, S., Benedetti, A., and Spinhirne, J.: Validation of ECMWF global forecast model parameters using GLAS atmospheric channel measurements, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L22S09, \doi10.1029/2005GL023535, 2006. Penner, J., Lister, D., Griggs, D., Dokken, D., and McFarland, M. (Eds.): Aviation and the Global Atmosphere, IPCC special report, Cambridge University Press, UK, 1999. Sassen, K. and Campbell, J.: A midlatitude cirrus cloud climatology from the facility for atmospheric remote sensing. Part I: Macrophysical and synoptic properties, J. Atmos. Sci., 58, 481–496, 2001. Sassen, K., Griffin, M., and Dodd, G.: Optical scattering and microphysical properties of subvisual cirrus clouds, and climatic implications, J. Appl. Meteor., 28, 91–98, 1989. Schäfer, H.-J., Schrems, O., Beyerle, G., Hofer, B., Mildner, W., and Theopold, F.: Shipborne measurements with a modular multi-purpose mobile lidar system for tropospheric and stratospheric aerosol observations, SPIE EurOpto Series, 3104, 265–273, 1997. Sonntag, D.: Advances in the field of hygrometry, Meteorologische Zeitschrift, 3, 51–66, 1994. Spichtinger, P., Gierens, K., Leiterer, U., and Dier, H.: Ice superaturation in the tropopause region over Lindenberg, Germany, Meteorologische Zeitschrift, 12, 3, 143–156, 2003. Spichtinger, P., Gierens, K., and Lohmann, U.: Importance of a proper treatment of ice crystal sedimentation for cirrus clouds in large-scale models, in: AMS Cloud Physics Conference Proceedings, P1.60, available at: http://ams.confex.com/ams/pdfpapers/112924.pdf, 2006. Ström, J., Seifert, M., Kärcher, B., Ovarlez, J., Minikin, A., Gayet, J.-F., Krejci, R., Petzold, A., Auriol, F., Haag, W., Busen, R., Schumann, U., and Hansson, H C.: Cirrus cloud occurrence as function of ambient relative humidity: a comparison of observations obtained during the INCA experiment, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 3, 1807–1816, 2003. Tiedtke, M.: Representation of clouds in large-scale models, Mon. Weather Rev., 121, 3040–3061, 1993. Toon, O. and Miake-Lye, R.: Subsonic Aircraft: Contrail and Cloud Effects Special Study (SUCCESS), Geophys. Res. Lett., 25, 1109, \doi10.1029/98GL00839, 1998. Treffeisen, R., Krejci, R., Ström, J., Engvall, A., Herber, A., and Thomason, L.: Humidity observations in the Arctic troposphere over Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard based on 15 years of radiosonde data, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 7, 2721–2732, 2007. Solomon, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., Marquis, M., Averyt, K., Tignor, M. M B., Miller Jr., H L., and Chen, Z. (Eds.): Climate Change 2007, The Physical Science Basis, Cambridge University press, 2007.