GCIP measurements of precipitation and fog during SNOW-V10 and FRAM projects

This work will focus on a new probe called GCIP (Ground Cloud Imaging Probe) developed by a collaboration between Droplet Measurement Technologies (DMT) and Environment Canada (EC). Its measurements were collected during SNOW-V10 and FRAM (Fog Remote Sensing And Modeling) projects and represent particle size range from 7.5 micron to 960 micron with 15 micron bin size over the 3 grey scales, representing particle optical density. The GCIP measurements from field programs represented 1) blowing snow conditions, 2) ice-frozen fog conditions, and 3) various snow types e.g. wet snow, snow grains, needles, ice pellets, columns, dendrites, and capped columns etc. Its measurements can be used to obtain small particle size spectra (<100 micron) and shape that currently cannot be obtained accurately using aircraft in-situ observations because of shattering issues and ground base distrometers e.g. OTT ParSiVel because of its sensitivity to sizes less than 200-500 micron. This work will summarize results from the various weather events and will focus on its usefulness in the estimation of small ice crystals number concentration, visibility and snow density (or particle shape), and light precipitation intensity and amount that often occur at the high latitudes (e.g. in Arctic regions) and mountainous regions.