Dependence of the drizzle growth process on the cloud top height and its relevance to the aerosol vertical profile

Transitional processes among cloud droplets, drizzle and raindrops are still uncertain and more efforts are required for the better understanding. In this situation, difference in the drizzle growth process was examined according to the cloud top height using the CloudSat and MODIS synergetic datasets. From the CloudSat products such as 2B-GEOPROF, 2B-TAU, ECMWF-AUX, only one-layered water clouds whose top temperatures were warmer than 273K were extracted over China (a circular area having a diameter of 1800km of the center at 35°N and 120°E) and over ocean (a circular area having a diameter of 1500km of the center at 35°N and 150°E). Then a threshold of 3km of the cloud top height was adopted to divide the extracted clouds into upper and lower cases. First, the probability distribution functions (PDF) of the cloud droplet number density (Nc) and the effective particle radius (Re) were calculated for these four cases (land/ocean/upper/lower). Nc was obtained assuming the adiabatic liquid water content from MODIS-derived cloud optical depth and Re. Oceanic clouds had fewer Nc than land clouds, and almost the same for upper and lower cases. Land clouds had more Nc for the lower case than for the higher case. On the other hand, oceanic clouds had larger Re than land clouds, and almost the same for upper and lower cases. Land clouds had smaller Re for the lower case than for the higher case. These results quite agreed with our existing knowledge on the vertical profile of the aerosol number concentration over ocean (pristine) and land (polluted). Although the number of aerosol particles is fewer and almost the same regardless of the height over the ocean, it is more near the surface and it rapidly decreases according to the height over the land. Next, examining PDF of the radar reflectivity (Ze), we found that although PDFs of Ze were almost the same for oceanic clouds regardless of the cloud top height, PDF of land lower clouds were less frequent at around from -20(dBZ) to -5 (dBZ) than that of land upper clouds. The region from -20(dBZ) to -5 (dBZ) approximately corresponds to drizzle particles. The less frequency of Ze at the region is consistent with the smaller Re of lower clouds. Therefore, we conclude that this phenomenon can be understood as one of the presentations for the second kind of the aerosol indirect effect. PDF of radar reflectivity of upper and lower clouds over the ocean and China