The NASA-sponsored Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS) field campaign provided high spatiotemporal measurements of remote sensing and cloud microphysical properties using a “satellite-simulating” ER-2 aircraft flying above winter snowstorms and a “storm-penetrating” P-3 aircraft sampling within clouds during the 2020, 2022, and 2023 winters. Vertical profiles of 𝛽 and 𝛿 from the Cloud Physics Lidar provided scattering properties at various temperatures while coordination between the aircraft allowed for these measurements to be compared with data collected by in-situ instruments at different altitudes within the cloud.
Among the 23 coordinated flights, two snowstorms with different 𝛽, 𝛿, and temperature range both in the vertical and along the P-3 flight track are contrasted. An Alberta clipper system over Québec, Canada on 19 January 2022 exhibited low median 𝛽 (= 0.01 km-1 sr-1), high median 𝛿 (= 0.3), and cold cloud tops (-60℃) associated with more columnar crystals and bullet rosettes between -30° and -15℃. A redeveloping Mid-Atlantic cyclone on 28 February 2023 featured a higher median 𝛽 of 0.11 km-1 sr-1 and lower median 𝛿 of 0.1 with warmer cloud tops (-30℃) and a greater presence of supercooled liquid drops between -15° and -5℃. These cases are further placed into the broader context of snowstorms sampled during IMPACTS, and implications for developing a new cloud phase and particle habit algorithm using CPL data are discussed.

