ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-8-4547-2008 Variability of cirrus clouds in a convective outflow during the Hibiscus campaign Fierli F. 1 Di Donfrancesco G. 2 Cairo F. 1 Marécal V. 3 Zampieri M. 1 Orlandi E. 1 Durry G. 4 5 Istituto di Scienze dell'Atmosfera e del Clima, CNR, Italy Ente Nazionale Energia e Ambiente, Dipartimento Clima, Italy Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement, CNRS and Université d'Orléans, France Groupe de Spectroscopie Moléculaire et Atmosphérique, CNRS and Université de Reims, France Service d'Aéronomie, CNRS and Institut Pierre et Simon Laplace, France 06 08 2008 8 16 4547 4558 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/8/4547/2008/acp-8-4547-2008.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/4547/2008/acp-8-4547-2008.pdf

Light-weight microlidar and water vapour measurements were taken on-board a stratospheric balloon during the HIBISCUS 2004 campaign, held in Bauru, Brazil (49° W, 22° S). Cirrus clouds were observed throughout the flight between 12 and 15 km height with a high mesoscale variability in optical and microphysical properties. It was found that the cirrus clouds were composed of different layers characterized by marked differences in height, thickness and optical properties. Simultaneous water vapour observations show that the different layers are characterized by different values of the saturation with respect to ice. A mesoscale simulation and a trajectory analysis clearly revealed that the clouds had formed in the outflow of a large and persistent convective region and that the observed variability of the optical properties and of the cloud structure is likely linked to the different residence times of the convectively-processed air in the upper troposphere.

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