The long-term properties of continental aerosol and cumulus clouds: Implications for aerosol-cloud interactions

Recent satellite observations of clouds and aerosols over Europe, China, Amazon, and the Atlantic Ocean reveal systematic correlations among aerosol loading, cloud cover and cloud-top height. We make use of 5- years of surface data collected at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) Central Facility located in north-central Oklahoma USA to examine the temporal evolution of cloud macrophysical (e.g., cloud fraction, base/height, vertical, and horizontal extent) and aerosol properties (e.g., aerosol optical depth, absorption, and vertical distribution). Cloud properties above the ARM SGP Central Facility were derived from a 35 GHz cloud radar, micropulse lidar, laser ceilometer, and 915 MHz radar wind profiler. Aerosol properties were determined using a micropulse lidar, the ARM aerosol observation system, and a suite of instruments to measure the downwelling radiation. The goal of this work is to develop strategies for using long-term cloud and aerosol datasets that have been collected simultaneously to quantify the aerosol- cloud relationships and to evaluate the effect of aerosol on cumulus clouds.