Quicklooks of ARM data processed using Cloudnet algorithms

This page contains links to pages containing quicklooks of some data from non-Cloudnet sites after processing with Cloudnet algorithms, specifically the US Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) sites in the Southern Great Plains (SGP), the North Slope of Alaska (NSA), the tropical West Pacific (Darwin, Manus and Nauru), and the Arm Mobile Facility (AMF) in Niamey, Niger.

Warning: These results are preliminary and likely to change at short notice. We are working on a few known problems with the data:

• The liquid water path needs to be recalculated using the accurate radiometer/lidar/model synergy method, which continually calibrates the coefficients in clear-sky periods.
• Convective cloud fraction can dominate at mid-levels in the tropical datasets, but due to retrieval difficulties when there is rain at the surface, these regions are not well sampled by the observations. The statistics of the comparisons are likely to give a misleadingly poor impression of model forecasts. We intend to try comparing just the large-scale model fields with the observations for these sites.
• These sites have much more sensitive lidars operating than the lidar ceilometers used at Chilbolton and Cabuaw; these provide valuable information on thin high cloud not detected by the radar, but only when they are not obscured by low-level cloud. There are a number of algorithmic and statistical issues to resolve before these instruments can be used routinely, which includes the discrimination between molecular and aerosol/cloud scattering.

Level 1 model data ARM SGP ARM NSA ARM Darwin ARM Manus ARM Nauru AMF Niamey Met Office global model output ECMWF model output Meteo France model output
Level 1 observational data ARM SGP ARM NSA ARM Darwin ARM Manus ARM Nauru AMF Niamey Processed radar, lidar, microwave radiometer and raingauge data
Level 2 meteorological products ARM SGP ARM NSA ARM Darwin ARM Manus ARM Nauru AMF Niamey Target classification Cloud fraction Ice cloud properties (radar-lidar method) Ice water content (radar-temperature method) Liquid water content (linear scaled adiabatic method) Liquid water content (Delft radar-lidar method)
All measurements and products ARM SGP ARM NSA ARM Darwin ARM Manus ARM Nauru AMF Niamey All processed measurements and products
Level 3 model evaluation datasets ARM SGP ARM NSA ARM Darwin ARM Manus ARM Nauru AMF Niamey Cloud fraction comparison Ice water content comparison These pages are maintained by . Return to Radar Group | Department of Meteorology | University of Reading