Journal article
On the limits of CALIOP for constraining modelled free‐tropospheric aerosol
- Abstract:
- The space‐borne Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument provides valuable information on the vertical distribution of global aerosol, and is often used to evaluate vertical aerosol distributions in General Circulation Models (GCMs). Here we show, however, that the detection limit of the CALIOP retrievals mean background aerosol is not detected, leading to substantially skewed statistics that moreover differ significantly by product. In the CALIOP Level 2 product this missing low‐backscatter aerosol results in the retrieved aerosol distribution significantly over‐representing aerosol backscatter and extinction in the mid‐ and upper‐troposphere if taken to be representative of the undetected aerosol. The CALIOP Level 3 product assumes no aerosol where none is detected which then leads to an under‐estimation in the aerosol extinction profile in the upper troposphere. Using the ECHAM‐HAM GCM, we estimate that CALIOP nighttime (daytime) retrievals miss 41% (44%) of aerosol mass in the atmosphere.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 794.8KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1029/2018GL078195
Authors
+ European Commission
More from this funder
- Funding agency for:
- Watson-Parris, D
- Stier, P
- Grant:
- Seventh Framework Programme- FP7/2007-2013
- 724602
+ Natural Environment Research Council
More from this funder
- Funding agency for:
- Watson-Parris, D
- Stier, P
- Grant:
- Seventh Framework Programme- FP7/2007-2013
- 724602
+ Science and Technology Facilities Council
More from this funder
- Funding agency for:
- Watson-Parris, D
- Stier, P
- Grant:
- Seventh Framework Programme- FP7/2007-2013
- 724602
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union
- Journal:
- Geophysical Research Letters More from this journal
- Volume:
- 45
- Issue:
- 17
- Pages:
- 9260-9266
- Publication date:
- 2018-08-03
- Acceptance date:
- 2018-07-28
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
1944-8007
- ISSN:
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0094-8276
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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pubs:908093
- UUID:
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uuid:ea183cc2-3978-40dc-b2da-36cdb870f0e3
- Local pid:
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pubs:908093
- Source identifiers:
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908093
- Deposit date:
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2018-08-17
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Watson‐Parris et al
- Copyright date:
- 2018
- Notes:
- ©2018. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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