Articles | Volume 8, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-435-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-435-2015
Research article
 | 
27 Jan 2015
Research article |  | 27 Jan 2015

Distinguishing cirrus cloud presence in autonomous lidar measurements

J. R. Campbell, M. A. Vaughan, M. Oo, R. E. Holz, J. R. Lewis, and E. J. Welton

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Short summary
Digital thresholds based on 2012 CALIOP satellite lidar measurements are investigated for distinguishing cirrus cloud presence, including cloud top temperatures and heights combined with layer depolarization and phase and optical depths. A cloud top temperature of -37 C is found to exhibit the most stable performance, owing to it being the point of homogeneous liquid-water freezing. Depolarization and phase help but are mostly ambiguous at warmer temperatures where mixed-phase clouds propagate.