Investigation of the MBL Cloud Macro- and Micro-physical Properties over Pacific and Atlantic Oceans

Marine boundary layer (MBL) cloud is an important cloud type in global climate system, and its macro- and micro- physical properties relate with not only the radiation budgets but also affect the sea surface temperature. Two DOE ARM Mobile Facilities (AMF1 and AMF2) were recently deployed at both Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. One was at the Graciosa Island, Azores in context of the Clouds, Aerosol and Precipitation in the Marine Boundary Layer (CAP-MBL) field campaign and the AMF1 collected the most continuous, valuable and comprehensive data of MBL clouds from Jun. 2009 to Dec. 2010. The other filed campaign is the Marine ARM GPCI Investigation of Clouds (MAGIC) IOP, which will provide a great opportunity for us to do the analysis of MBL over Pacific Ocean. The ARM Mobile Facility (AMF2) has been deployed on the Horizon Line cargo ship Spirit traversing the route between Los Angeles, CA and Honolulu, HI for one full year (Oct. 2012 to Sept. 2013) with two additional 2-week intensive observational periods in January and July 2013, such as including additional instruments and more soundings (3-hr). The AMF2 has very similar data sets as the AMF1 over Azores but will not focus on one single point. The AMF2 observations, as well as retrievals for MBL clouds during MAGIC will allow us to compare the MBL cloud properties between North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In this study, we will compare the MBL clouds macro- and micro- physical properties over two Oceans. These macro- and micro- physical properties of MBL clouds are derived from AMF1 and AMF2 measurements. In details, the cloud heights are derived from radar/lidar pairs; the cloud temperatures are from linearly interpreted soundings; liquid water path (LWP) is retrieved from microwave radiometer; cloud condensation nuclei are derived from AOS measurements under super-saturation ratio at 0.2. The MBL cloud microphysical properties at daytime (cloud effective radius, optical thickness, and number concentration) will be retrieved by using the Dong et al. 1998. Finally we will investigate and understand the similarities and differences of MBL clouds properties over Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.