The Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Sciences

2027 Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Sciences

January 12-15, 2027

Retrieval of Vertical Physical Properties of Water Clouds using Multisource Satellite Observations
ID:693 Poster Presentation

2027-01-15 18:30 (China Standard Time)

Session:Session 54 - Aerosol–Cloud–Radiation Interactions in the Ocean–Atmosphere System

Abstract
Vertical profiles of cloud microphysical properties, particularly cloud effective radius (CER) and liquid water content (LWC), are essential for understanding cloud evolution, radiative effects, and climate model parameterizations. Active radar provides accurate vertical information but has limited coverage, whereas passive satellites offer broad coverage without direct profiling capability. To bridge this gap, this study develops a physically based framework for retrieving liquid-phase stratiform cloud profiles by integrating LES simulations, CloudSat observations, and POLDER/Parasol multi-angle polarimetric measurements. EOF analysis shows that the first three modes explain over 90% of LES-derived profile variability, dominated by monotonic and triangular structures. Accordingly, a simplified cloud profile parameterization model (CPM) with eight physical parameters is proposed, and a cloud profile reconstruction model (CPRM) is validated using CloudSat and aircraft in-situ data. Radiative-transfer experiments indicate that optical thickness, cloud-top CER, and geometric thickness can be reliably constrained from passive observations, while turning-point parameters are more difficult to retrieve. Global CloudSat statistics show that increase-then-decrease and monotonically decreasing profiles account for 90.1% of cases, with TP_CER and TP_NCOT as key descriptors of triangular structures. Combining multiple linear regression and random forest models enables the first retrieval of TP_CER and TP_NCOT from POLDER-3 observations, with good consistency against collocated CloudSat measurements. The framework is further extended to Himawari-8 multi-channel observations for high-spatiotemporal-resolution retrieval of cloud-top structural parameters. Overall, these studies establish a pathway from active-radar-derived profile knowledge to passive-satellite retrieval of cloud vertical structure, supporting global cloud profile characterization and improved understanding of aerosol–cloud–precipitation interactions and cloud radiative effects.
Speaker
Huazhe Shang Aerospace Research Information Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Author
Huazhe Shang Aerospace Research Information Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences

    Important Dates

    • Jan 30

      2026

      Session / Event proposals open

    • Mar 31

      2026

      Session / Event proposals close
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    • Apr 30

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    • Apr 30

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    • Jun 30

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      (Extended to July 21)

    • Aug 31

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    • Sep 15

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      Scientific program released

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    • Jan 12–15

      2027

      XMAS 2027