Long-term Observations of Upper Tropospheric Ice Clouds at DOE ARM Observatories

It is well known that upper tropospheric ice clouds can warm the atmosphere by trapping outgoing long-wave radiation and reflecting incoming solar radiation. Long-term observations from both ground-based networks and satellite observations provide a wealth of information for understanding the radiative feedback of clouds and how these feedbacks change across various temporal scales. The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility has three long-term fixed observatories with continuous remote sensing observations of the atmospheric column for several decades. We will present the status of these observations, highlight new capabilities and data products, and provide example statistics that can help characterize ice cloud characteristics over ARM observatories.