EOL Seminar: Jothiram Vivekanandan - NCAR EOL/RSF

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Title: Sensing the onset of collision-coalescence and drizzle from joint Lidar and Radar Measurements

Speaker: Jothiram Vivekanandan - NCAR EOL/RSF

Abstract: Simultaneous lidar and radar observations of clouds and precipitation are becoming more common. In response to such opportunities, a measure of droplet diameter, radar–lidar-estimated diameter (RLED) , was introduced in [1] and [2] to estimate droplet size. While the Gamma distribution of drop size was used in [1], a non-parametric approach was used in [2], and it was shown in [2] that RLED performed well in estimating liquid water content (LWC) of warm clouds. RLED is particularly sensitive to collision-coalescence onset, making it a potential indicator of drizzle onset. It can help distinguish between drizzling and non-drizzling clouds. Additionally, RLED is influenced by the drop size distribution (DSD) dispersion and can provide a rough estimate of DSD dispersion. This is significant because the dispersion of DSD plays a crucial role in terrestrial radiative transfer. The usefulness of RLED in estimating DSD dispersion is demonstrated through the analysis of in situ cloud probe measurements.