Summertime Stratocumulus Precipitation Properties Observed from Aircraft during the SOCRATES campaign

Precipitation is a crucial process that impacts clouds and aerosols, as well as energy and water budgets over the Southern Ocean (SO). A lack of observations over the SO has been a key factor limiting our knowledge of SO precipitation properties. The Southern Ocean Clouds Radiation Aerosol Transport Experimental Study (SOCRATES) conducted in January and February of 2018 provides us with valuable precipitation observations from airbone w-band HIAPER Cloud Radar(HCR), High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL), and various in situ probes. In this study, we use SOCRATES aircraft observations to study the precipitation properties of summertime stratocumulus. In particular, we use lidar depolarization to examine the phase of precipitation falling from clouds and liquid-phase precipitation properties retrieved using both the radar-lidar technique and radar reflectivity-velocity (ZV) retrieval technique using zenith-pointing data. After evaluating the retrievals using in-situ measurements, we further examine the precipitation rate, occurrence, and its dependence on environmental factors. We also develop power-law relationships between reflectivity(Z) and rain rate(R) for SO stratocumulus based on SOCRATES observations.