3.9 Micron Albedo Characteristics of Midlevel Mixed-Phase Clouds

Recently completed field campaigns targeting midlevel mixed-phase clouds suggest that a vertical cloud structure composed of a supercooled liquid layer with ice virga precipitating below occurs more commonly than previously thought. Midlevel clouds topped with supercooled liquid were also observed to be spatially extensive and long-lived.

Spherical Harmonic Discrete Ordinate Method (SHDOM) radiative transfer retrievals performed on in-situ observations of midlevel mixed-phase clouds will be presented and compared with 3.9 micron channel albedo geostationary satellite observations of known mixed-phase clouds.

Early results indicate good potential for the use of 3.9 micron albedo information in helping to qualitatively, and possible quantitatively, identify significant aircraft icing hazards, especially at night.