Consideration of the cloud motion for aircraft-based stereographically derived cloud geometry and cloud top heights

Abstract. Cloud geometry and in particular cloud top heights can be derived from 2-D camera measurements by applying a stereographic method to data from an overflight over a scene of clouds (see, e.g., Kölling et al., 2019). Although airplane overpasses are relatively fast, cloud motion with the wind is important and can result in errors in the cloud localization. Here, the impact of the wind is investigated using the method from Kölling et al. (2019) for measurements of the airborne hyperspectral imaging system spectrometer of the Munich Aerosol Cloud Scanner (specMACS). Further, a method for cloud motion correction using model winds from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is presented. It is shown that the update is important as the original algorithm without the cloud motion correction can over- or underestimate the cloud top heights by several hundred meters, depending on the wind speed and the relative wind direction. This is validated using data from the Elucidating the role of clouds–circulation coupling in climate (EUREC4A) campaign and realistic 3-D radiative transfer simulations. From the comparison of the derived cloud top heights with the expected ones from the model input, an average accuracy of the cloud top heights of less than (20±140) m (mean deviation and 1 standard deviation) is estimated for the updated method.