Application and validation of synergetic cloud property retrieval during the Tropical Warm Pool - International Cloud Experiment (TWP-ICE)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ulrich Löhnert
• Subject Area: Atmospheric Science
• Term: from 2005 to 2007
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 14617958

The Tropical Warm Pool - International Cloud Experiment (TWP-ICE) will be the first Field program in the tropics that attempts to describe the evolution of tropical convection, including the large scale heat, moisture and momentum budgets, while at the same time obtaining detailed observations of clouds (http://www.bom.gov.au/bmrc/wefor/research/twpice.htm). The occurrence of tropical clouds in the form of shallow non-precipitating cumulus to deep precipitating cumulonimbus with extensive anvils has a significant and fundamental impact an the atmospheric energy balance. The methods we have developed at the University of Munich, which for the first time will be applied to tropical conditions, make it possible to gain insight into these processes by measuring the structure of the atmospheric boundary layer, including boundary layer clouds. A state-of-the-art microwave profiler - the Humidity and Temperature Profiler (HATPRO) - will be a key element for performing detailed boundary layer measurements. In this respect the other instruments to be deployed at the TWP-ICE main site Darwin (cloud radar, lidar, infrared radiometer, radiation measurements and precipitation detectors) are especially suited for combination with HATPRO. At the same time numerous in-situ measurements of the thermodynamic atmospheric structure and of cloud microphysics planned in TWP-ICE will provide a unique opportunity to validate our newly developed methods in an international context.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants