title: Measurements of cirrus cloud backscatter color ratio with a two-wavelength lidar.
abstract: We present observations of cirrus clouds from June 2006 to July 2007 performed by using a two-wavelength lidar located at Hampton University. For this time period, cirrus clouds were observed mostly in 7-13.5 km altitudes. Data analyses have been performed focusing on a color-ratio retrieval. In total, 86,369 samples from 1,689 profiles (1 min average and 15 m range resolution) containing cirrus clouds with attenuated backscatter ratio (ratio of attenuated total backscatter to the molecular backscatter) larger than 10 have been selected. The cirrus color ratio distribution shows a peak value at about 0.88 and a full width at half-maximum of 0.12.
authors.affiliation: Center for Atmospheric Sciences, Department of Atmosphere and Planetary Sciences, Hampton University, Hampton, Virginia 23668, USA.
authors.forename: Zongming
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.forename: M Patrick
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: McCormick
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Zhaoyan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Vaughan