Observing ice clouds with a Doppler cloud radar

Artemio Plana-Fattori (1) , Alain Protat (2, 1) , Julien Delanoë (3)

1 SPACE - LATMOS
2 CAWCR - Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research
3 Department of Meteorology [Reading]

Cloud systems containing ice particles ("ice clouds") must be realistically represented in numerical models devoted to weather forecasting and climate projection. Nevertheless, such clouds have not been fully characterized. The RadOn method (after Radar Only) has been developed for estimating microphysical properties of ice clouds from Doppler cloud radar observations. This method is here updated and applied to observations conducted in 2003-2004 with the Doppler cloud radar RASTA at the SIRTA observatory (Palaiseau, near Paris).

Mots clés: Doppler radar; Clouds; Climate; Meteorology; Ice particles

Domaines: Météorologie; Climatologie; Milieux et Changements globaux

Artemio Plana-Fattori, Alain Protat, Julien Delanoë. Observing ice clouds with a Doppler cloud radar. Comptes Rendus. Physique, 2010, 11 (1), pp.96-103. ⟨10.1016/j.crhy.2009.11.004⟩. ⟨hal-00463623⟩