A First Look at Cloud Radar Value-Added Products during the CACTI ARM Mobile Facility Deployment

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Description

The Cloud, Aerosol and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) ARM Mobile Facility deployment in the mountains of north-central Argentina includes three cloud radars in its instrumentation suite:  the Ka-band ARM Zenith Radar (KAZR) and the Ka- and X-band ARM Scanning Cloud Radars (SACRs).  The KAZR operates at vertical incidence while, during CACTI, the SACRs were scanned in full-hemispheric and sector range-height indicator (RHI) patterns, collecting observations within a 25 km radius of the primary site.    Here we present a first look at cloud characteristics as produced using two ARM Value Added Products (VAPs).  The KAZR Active Remote Sensing of CLouds (ARSCL) VAP combines observations from the KAZR, Micropulse Lidar and Ceilometer to provide best-estimates of cloud boundaries and hydrometeor reflectivities, dealiased mean Doppler velocities and spectrum widths in the column above the CACTI facility.  The SACR ADVance 3-Dimensional Cartesian Cloud Cover (SACRADV-3D3C) VAP maps radial SACR moments observed via hemispheric RHI scans onto a three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system.  The VAP also corrects reflectivities for gaseous attenuation and computes domain-averaged cloud fractions.  VAP details, representative images and data availability information will be provided.