Comparison of Global and Seasonal Characteristics of Cloud Phase and Horizontal Ice Plates Derived from CALIPSO with MODIS and ECMWF

This study analyzed the global and seasonal characteristics of cloud phase and ice crystal orientation (CTYPE-lidar) by using the Cloud Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) on board the Cloud Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO). A dataset from September 2006 to August 2007 was used to derive the seasonal characteristics. The discrimination scheme was originally developed by Yoshida et al., who classified clouds mainly into warm water, supercooled water, and randomly oriented ice crystals or horizontally oriented ice plates. This study used the following products for the comparison with CTYPE-lidar: (i) the vertical feature mask (VFM) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), (ii) the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and (iii) European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Overall, the results showed that the CTYPE-lidar discrimination scheme was consistent with the outputs from VFM, MODIS, and ECMWF. The zonal mean water cloud cover in daytime from this study showed good agreement with that derived from MODIS; the slope of the linear regression was 1.06 and the offset was 0.002. The CTYPE-lidar ice cloud occurrence frequency and the ECMWF ice supersaturation occurrence frequency were also in good agreement; the slope of the linear regression of the two products was 1.02 in the temperature range -60 degrees C <= T <= -30 degrees C. The maximum occurrence frequencies in this study and ECMWF were recognized around -60 degrees C of the equator, with their peak shifted from several degrees north (similar to 9 degrees N) in September November (SON) to south (similar to 9 degrees S) in December - February (DJF) and back to north (similar to 7 degrees N) in March May (MAM) and June-August (JJA).