Temperature Profiles and Lapse Rate Climatology within Clouds Derived from GPS RO Data Collocated with CloudSat

Cloud parameters including cloud liquid water, cloud base height, cloud top height, and cloud type have been made available by the cloud Profiling Radar (PR) onboard CloudSat since June 2006. GPS radio occultation (RO) data are provided by COSMIC consisting of six LEO satellites since April 2006. COSMIC GPS RO data are collocated in space and time (less than 1 hour and 60 km separation) with CloudSat PR data during a 7-year period from 2007 to 2013. A total of more than 20 thousands collocated GPS RO profiles are found, which are classified into seven different cloud types. Vertical temperature profiles within clouds are then derived using a cloudy retrieval algorithm from COSMIC GPS refractivity profiles with and without contributions of cloud liquid water content and ice water content measured by CloudSat PR. The temperature profiles and lapse rates within different cloud types are compared with those from a traditional GPS RO wet retrieval, which does not consider cloud liquid water and ice water contributions to refractivity. For each cloud type, atmospheric refractivity, temperature, and water vapor derived from COSMIC GPS ROs are compared with those of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) analyses. Differences between GPS RO and ECMWF analysis within clouds, as well as seasonal variability and climatology of lapse rate derived from the GPS RO cloudy retrieval will be presented at the conference.