Arctic multilayered, mixed-phase cloud processes revealed in millimeter-wave cloud radar Doppler spectra

Cloud radar Doppler velocity spectra, lidar backscattering coefficients and depolarization ratios, and aircraft in situ measurements are used to investigate microphysical processes occurring in a case of multilayered, mixed-phase clouds over the North Slope of Alaska. Some liquid-cloud layers were observed to exist in well-mixed atmospheric layers, but others were found in absolutely stable atmospheric layers. The observations suggest that strong cloud top cooling was necessary to produce the well-mixed cloud layers; clouds shielded from radiative cooling by overlaying clouds more frequently existed in absolutely stable layers. The in situ measurements revealed that most liquid layers contained drizzle, the production process of which was shown from the radar and lidar measurements to have been interrupted only during heavier ice-precipitation events. Different layers interacted with one another by changing the radiative heating profile and by precipitation which changed the growth paths available to cloud particles and even initiated new hydrometeor classes. Key Points Embedded liquid-cloud layers exist in well-mixed and absolutely stable layers Most embedded liquid layers contained drizzle Precipitation from higher layers changes embedded layer microphysical processes