title: Ice clouds and Asian dust studied with lidar measurements of particle extinction-to-backscatter ratio, particle depolarization, and water-vapor mixing ratio over Tsukuba.
abstract: The tropospheric particle extinction-to-backscatter ratio, the depolarization ratio, and the water-vapor mixing ratio were measured by use of a Raman lidar and a polarization lidar during the Asian dust seasons in 2001 and 2002 in Tsukuba, Japan. The apparent (not corrected for multiple-scattering effects) extinction-to-backscatter ratios (Sp) showed a dependence on the relative humidity with respect to ice (RHice) obtained from the lidar-derived water-vapor mixing ratio and radiosonde-derived temperature; they were mostly higher than 30 sr in dry air (RHice < 50%), whereas they were mostly lower than 30 sr in ice-supersaturated air (RHice > or = 100%), where the apparent extinction coefficients were larger than 0.036 km(-1). Both regions showed mean particle depolarization ratios of 20%-22%. Comparisons with theoretical calculations and the previous experiments suggest that the observed dependence of Sp on RHice is attributed to the difference in the predominant particles: nonspherical aerosols (mainly the Asian dust) in dry air and cloud particles in ice-supersaturated air.
authors.affiliation: Japan Society for the Promotion Science, Meteorological Research Institute, Nagamine 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0052, Japan. tetsu@mri-jma.go.jp
authors.forename: Tetsu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagai
authors.forename: Masahisa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakazato
authors.forename: Yuzo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mano
authors.forename: Takatsugu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsumura