A general database of hydrometeor single scattering properties at microwave and sub-millimetre wavelengths
<p>A main limitation today in simulations and inversions of microwave observations of ice hydrometeors (cloud ice, snow, hail, etc.) is the lack of data describing the interaction between electromagnetic waves and the particles. To improve the situation, the development of a comprehensive...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2018-07-01
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| Series: | Earth System Science Data |
| Online Access: | https://www.earth-syst-sci-data.net/10/1301/2018/essd-10-1301-2018.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>A main limitation today in simulations and inversions of microwave
observations of ice hydrometeors (cloud ice, snow, hail, etc.) is the lack of
data describing the interaction between electromagnetic waves and the
particles. To improve the situation, the development of a comprehensive
dataset of such <q>scattering properties</q> has been started. The database aims
at giving a broad coverage in both frequency (1 to 886 GHz) and temperature
(190 to 270 K), to support both passive and active current and planned
measurements, and to provide data corresponding to the full Stokes vector.
This first version of the database is restricted to totally random particle
orientation. Data for 34 particle sets, i.e. habits, have been generated.
About 17 of the habits can be classified as single crystals, three habits can
be seen as heavily rimed particles, and the remaining habits are aggregates
of different types, e.g. snow and hail. The particle sizes
considered vary between the habits, but maximum diameters of 10 and 20 mm
are typical values for the largest single crystal and aggregate particles,
respectively, and the number of sizes per habit is at least 30. Particles
containing liquid water are also inside the scope of the database, but this
phase of water is so far only represented by a liquid sphere habit. The
database is built upon the netCDF4 file format. Interfaces to browse, extract
and convert data for selected radiative transfer models are provided in
MATLAB and Python. The database and associated tools are publicly available
from Zenodo (<a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1175572" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1175572</a>, Ekelund et al., 2018b), and
<a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1175588" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1175588</a>, Mendrok et al., 2018, respectively). Planned
extensions include non-spherical raindrops, melting particles and a second
orientation case that can be denoted as azimuthally random.</p> |
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| ISSN: | 1866-3508 1866-3516 |