Calibration of the 2007–2017 record of Atmospheric Radiation Measurements cloud radar observations using CloudSat

Kollias, Pavlos; Puigdomènech Treserras, Bernat; Protat, Alain

doi:10.5194/amt-12-4949-2019

Title: Calibration of the 2007–2017 record of Atmospheric Radiation Measurements cloud radar observations using CloudSat

Journal Article · Thu Sep 12 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4949-2019· OSTI ID:1561368

Kollias, Pavlos; Puigdomènech Treserras, Bernat; Protat, Alain

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurements (ARM) facility has been at the forefront of millimeter-wavelength radar development and operations since the late 1990s. The operational performance of the ARM cloud radar network is very high; however, the calibration of the historical record is not well established. Here, a well-characterized spaceborne 94 GHz cloud profiling radar (CloudSat) is used to characterize the calibration of the ARM cloud radars. The calibration extends from 2007 to 2017 and includes both fixed and mobile deployments. Collectively, over 43 years of ARM profiling cloud radar observations are compared to CloudSat and the calibration offsets are reported as a function of time using a sliding window of 6 months. The study also provides the calibration offsets for each operating mode of the ARM cloud radars. Overall, significant calibration offsets are found that exceed the uncertainty of the technique (1–2 dB). The findings of this study are critical to past, ongoing, and planned studies of cloud and precipitation and should assist the DOE ARM to build a legacy decadal ground-based cloud radar dataset for global climate model validation.

View Journal Article

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 1561368

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1569542

Report Number(s):: BNL-212182-2019-JAAM

Journal Information:: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Online), Journal Name: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Online) Vol. 12 Journal Issue: 9; ISSN 1867-8548

Publisher:: Copernicus Publications, EGUCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: Germany

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 27 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (36)

Measurements of Ocean Surface Backscattering Using an Airborne 94-GHz Cloud Radar—Implication for Calibration of Airborne and Spaceborne W-Band Radars Li, Lihua; Heymsfield, Gerald M.; Tian, Lin Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Vol. 22, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH1722.1	journal	July 2005
CloudSat as a Global Radar Calibrator Protat, A.; Bouniol, D.; O’Connor, E. J. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Vol. 28, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JTECHA1443.1	journal	March 2011
Deriving Arctic Cloud Microphysics at Barrow, Alaska: Algorithms, Results, and Radiative Closure Shupe, Matthew D.; Turner, David D.; Zwink, Alexander Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, Vol. 54, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-15-0054.1	journal	July 2015
The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Cloud Profiling Radars: An Evaluation of Signal Processing and Sampling Strategies Kollias, Pavlos; Albrecht, Bruce A.; Clothiaux, Eugene E. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Vol. 22, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH1749.1	journal	July 2005
The EarthCARE Satellite: The Next Step Forward in Global Measurements of Clouds, Aerosols, Precipitation, and Radiation Illingworth, A. J.; Barker, H. W.; Beljaars, A. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 96, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00227.1	journal	August 2015
Doppler Radar Profilers as Calibration Tools for Scanning Radars Gage, Kenneth S.; Williams, Christopher R.; Johnston, Paul E. Journal of Applied Meteorology, Vol. 39, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(2001)040<2209:DRPACT>2.0.CO;2	journal	December 2000
A 19-Month Record of Marine Aerosol–Cloud–Radiation Properties Derived from DOE ARM Mobile Facility Deployment at the Azores. Part I: Cloud Fraction and Single-Layered MBL Cloud Properties Dong, Xiquan; Xi, Baike; Kennedy, Aaron Journal of Climate, Vol. 27, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00553.1	journal	May 2014
A W-Band Radar–Radiometer System for Accurate and Continuous Monitoring of Clouds and Precipitation Küchler, Nils; Kneifel, Stefan; Löhnert, Ulrich Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Vol. 34, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-17-0019.1	journal	November 2017
MPM?An atmospheric millimeter-wave propagation model Liebe, Hans J. International Journal of Infrared and Millimeter Waves, Vol. 10, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01009565	journal	June 1989
Quantitative Cross Validation of Space-Based and Ground-Based Radar Observations Bolen, Steven M.; Chandrasekar, V. Journal of Applied Meteorology, Vol. 39, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(2001)040<2071:QCVOSB>2.0.CO;2	journal	December 2000
Evaluation of EarthCARE Cloud Profiling Radar Doppler Velocity Measurements in Particle Sedimentation Regimes Kollias, Pavlos; Tanelli, Simone; Battaglia, Alessandro Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Vol. 31, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-11-00202.1	journal	February 2014
(GO) ² -SIM: a GCM-oriented ground-observation forward-simulator framework for objective evaluation of cloud and precipitation phase Lamer, Katia; Fridlind, Ann M.; Ackerman, Andrew S. Geoscientific Model Development, Vol. 11, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-4195-2018	journal	January 2018
The ARM Mobile Facilities Miller, M. A.; Nitschke, K.; Ackerman, T. P. Meteorological Monographs, Vol. 57 https://doi.org/10.1175/AMSMONOGRAPHS-D-15-0051.1	journal	April 2016
Parallax Errors and Corrections for Dual-Antenna Millimeter-Wave Cloud Radars Sekelsky, Stephen M.; Clothiaux, Eugene E. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Vol. 19, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0426(2002)019<0478:PEACFD>2.0.CO;2	journal	April 2002
Development and Applications of ARM Millimeter-Wavelength Cloud Radars Kollias, Pavlos; Clothiaux, Eugene E.; Ackerman, Thomas P. Meteorological Monographs, Vol. 57 https://doi.org/10.1175/AMSMONOGRAPHS-D-15-0037.1	journal	April 2016
Radar Calibration: some Simple Approaches Atlas, David Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 83, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477-83.9.1313	journal	September 2002
Observed relations between snowfall microphysics and triple-frequency radar measurements: TRIPLE-FREQUENCY SIGNATURES OF SNOWFALL Kneifel, Stefan; von Lerber, Annakaisa; Tiira, Jussi Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 120, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JD023156	journal	June 2015
Scanning ARM Cloud Radars. Part I: Operational Sampling Strategies Kollias, Pavlos; Bharadwaj, Nitin; Widener, Kevin Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Vol. 31, Issue 3, p. 569-582 https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-13-00044.1	journal	March 2014
The ARM Cloud Radar Simulator for Global Climate Models: Bridging Field Data and Climate Models Zhang, Yuying; Xie, Shaocheng; Klein, Stephen A. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 99, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0258.1	journal	January 2018
The Arm Climate Research Facility: A Review of Structure and Capabilities Mather, James H.; Voyles, Jimmy W. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 94, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-11-00218.1	journal	March 2013
An Unattended Cloud-Profiling Radar for Use in Climate Research Moran, Kenneth P.; Martner, Brooks E.; Post, M. J. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 79, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1998)079<0443:AUCPRF>2.0.CO;2	journal	March 1998
Water vapor microwave continuum absorption: A comparison of measurements and models Rosenkranz, Philip W. Radio Science, Vol. 33, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1029/98RS01182	journal	July 1998
Vertical air motion retrievals in deep convective clouds using the ARM scanning radar network in Oklahoma during MC3E North, Kirk W.; Oue, Mariko; Kollias, Pavlos Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, Vol. 10, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2785-2017	journal	January 2017
The ARM Millimeter Wave Cloud Radars (MMCRs) and the Active Remote Sensing of Clouds (ARSCL) Value Added Product (VAP) Clothiaux, Eugene E.; Miller, Mark A.; Perez, Robin C. https://doi.org/10.2172/1808567	report	March 2001
Attenuation-Based Estimates of Rainfall Rates Aloft with Vertically Pointing K _a -Band Radars Matrosov, Sergey Y. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Vol. 22, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-1677.1	journal	January 2005
The Evaluation of CloudSat and CALIPSO Ice Microphysical Products Using Ground-Based Cloud Radar and Lidar Observations Protat, A.; Delanoë, J.; O’Connor, E. J. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Vol. 27, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JTECHA1397.1	journal	May 2010
CloudSat's Cloud Profiling Radar After Two Years in Orbit: Performance, Calibration, and Processing Tanelli, Simone; Durden, Stephen L.; Im, Eastwood IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 46, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2008.2002030	journal	November 2008
Millimeter-Wavelength Radars: New Frontier in Atmospheric Cloud and Precipitation Research Kollias, P.; Clothiaux, E. E.; Miller, M. A. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 88, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-88-10-1608	journal	October 2007
The EarthCARE cloud profiling radar (CPR) doppler measurements in deep convection: challenges, post-processing, and science applications Kollias, Pavlos; Battaglia, Alessandro; Tridon, Frederic Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere, Clouds, and Precipitation VII https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2324321	conference	October 2018
Signal Postprocessing and Reflectivity Calibration of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program 915-MHz Wind Profilers Tridon, Frédéric; Battaglia, Alessandro; Kollias, Pavlos Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Vol. 30, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-12-00146.1	journal	June 2013
The ARM North Slope of Alaska (NSA) Sites Verlinde, J.; Zak, B. D.; Shupe, M. D. Meteorological Monographs, Vol. 57 https://doi.org/10.1175/AMSMONOGRAPHS-D-15-0023.1	journal	April 2016
CloudSat and CALIPSO within the A-Train: Ten Years of Actively Observing the Earth System Stephens, Graeme; Winker, David; Pelon, Jacques Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 99, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0324.1	journal	March 2018
The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Cloud Profiling Radars: Second-Generation Sampling Strategies, Processing, and Cloud Data Products Kollias, Pavlos; Miller, Mark A.; Luke, Edward P. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Vol. 24, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH2033.1	journal	July 2007
The ARM Tropical Western Pacific (TWP) Sites Long, C. N.; Mather, J. H.; Ackerman, T. P. Meteorological Monographs, Vol. 57 https://doi.org/10.1175/AMSMONOGRAPHS-D-15-0024.1	journal	April 2016
The ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) Site Sisterson, D. L.; Peppler, R. A.; Cress, T. S. Meteorological Monographs, Vol. 57 https://doi.org/10.1175/AMSMONOGRAPHS-D-16-0004.1	journal	April 2016
A comparison of observations in the tropical western Pacific from ground-based and satellite millimeter-wavelength cloud radars: COMPARISON OF CLOUD RADAR OBSERVATIONS Liu, Zheng; Marchand, Roger; Ackerman, Thomas Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 115, Issue D24 https://doi.org/10.1029/2009JD013575	journal	December 2010