Influence of Cloud Microphysical Properties on Airborne Lidar Measurements: Results From the IMPACTS Field Campaign

Abstract Ice‐ and mixed‐phase clouds play an important role in the global radiative budget and hydrological cycle, yet the complexity of ice crystal shapes and the presence of supercooled liquid water (SCLW) present challenges for retrieving cloud properties from airborne and spaceborne remote sensing instruments. Airborne lidar measurements of the backscatter coefficient ( β ), color ratio ( χ ), and volume depolarization ratio ( δ ) provide additional spatial context for the cloud phase and to some extent the particle shapes both vertically and horizontally through clouds. Coordination between a NASA P‐3 and ER‐2 aircraft during the Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast‐Threatening Snowstorms field campaign provided 3.3 hr of Cloud Physics Lidar observations from 16 events to be spatially related to the particle size and morphological properties from the Cloud Particle Imager, in addition to temperature and SCLW measurements obtained by the P‐3 aircraft. After the lidar data were matched to the P‐3 location, in situ microphysics data were mapped in β‐δ and triple‐wavelength frameworks involving χ . Compared to SCLW regions, regions dominated by ice typically exhibited lower β (<10 −2 km −1 sr −1 ), lower 532/355‐nm χ (<0.3), and greater δ (>0.2) and were associated with particle sizes that were on average 105% larger and area ratios that were 40% lower. The relationships between cloud properties and lidar measurements established in this study have implications for future cloud phase and particle habit algorithms using airborne and spaceborne lidar data.