A033-0012
Characterization of cirrus clouds at the southern hemisphere mid-latitude site of Punta Arenas (53 ºS, 71 ºW)

Tuesday, 8 December 2020
Poster
Boris Barja Gonzalez1,2, Patric Seifert3, Diego Alves Gouveia4, Felix Zamorano1 and Jorge Rosas5, (1)Universidad de Magallanes, Laboratorio de Investigaciones Atmosféricas, Punta Arenas, Chile, (2)University of Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile, (3)Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research - TROPOS, Leipzig, Germany, (4)Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo., São Paulo, Brazil, (5)IAG Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Abstract:
Cirrus Clouds are important clouds in the climatic system. They are composed almost totally by ice crystals and affect the radiation budget of the atmosphere. This type of clouds have been extensively studied with different instruments including the lidar technique in several regions of the world. In the midlatitude of the Southern Hemisphere these clouds have been not studied yet. This is a key region of Earth’s climate and a source for uncertainties in climate modelling, where we can find pristine conditions in the atmosphere.

To study these cloud types in the mentioned region we use 3 years of measurements form a lidar system installed at Punta Arenas, Chile (53°S, 71°W) in September 2016. This system is a multi-wavelength Raman polarization lidar installed in the frame of the collaboration project SAVERNET (Chile, Japan and Argentina) to monitor the atmosphere. The present work report the characteristics of cirrus clouds measured above our site: vertical profile of the backscattering coefficient, base and top altitude, depolarization ratio and the seasonal behavior of these characteristics. A consistency is found between satellite products related with cirrus clouds and characteristics of cirrus reported in this study.

Since 27 November 2018, the experiment Dynamics, Aerosol, Cloud And Precipitation Observations in the Pristine Environment of the Southern Ocean (DACAPO-PESO, https://dacapo.tropos.de) is conducted at Punta Arenas. This experiment deployed in Punta Arenas the Leipzig Aerosol and Cloud Remote Observations System (LACROS) of Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS). LACROS include a Raman polarization lidar of type Polly-XT system which is capable to provide information to detect cirrus clouds, as well.

Since November of 2018 we have collocated measurements of cirrus clouds with these two lidar systems. We report about a cirrus cloud case study on May 3rd, 2019, using both instruments. We analyze also the origins of the measured air masses and meteorological conditions.

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