Cloud Vertical Structure variability within MODIS Cloud Regimes according to CloudSat-CALIPSO

To advance the understanding of the relationships and associations between active and passive views of cloud systems systematic comparisons are needed. We take advantage of A-Train's capability to collect a multitude of coincident measurements of atmospheric hydrometeors to develop a framework for examining cloud vertical structure (CVS). The backbone of our comparisons are cloud regimes (CRs) derived from co-varying cloud optical thickness and cloud top pressure retrieved from the MODIS radiometer. CloudSat and CALIPSO observations containing information about cloud occurrence throughout atmospheric layers are segregated and composited according to the MODIS regime classification for Aqua-only CR occurrences. With this approach, vertical profiles of cloud systems are organized in a way that allows them to be thoroughly studied and compared. We examine the frequency of occurrence within each MODIS CR of coarsely resolved CVS permutations (namely the possible combinations of clouds occurring at high, middle, and low altitudes either in isolation or in various configurations of contiguous or non-contiguous overlap). We look for similarities and extreme contrasts in CVS among MODIS CRs, dependence of CVS on the degree of deviation from the CR centroid, and regional dependences within the occurrences of the same CR. The presentation aims to demonstrate pathways towards a better knowledge of the information content of each type (i.e., active/passive) of measurement and to expose categories of cloud systems where the combination of measurements with different strengths and sensitivities is helping rather than confounding interpretations of the nature of cloudiness.