Managing uncertainty in cloud and precipitation property retrievals with multiple synergistic remote sensors

Description

The principal motivation for the suite of remote sensors now operating at the ARM fixed and mobile sites is to diagnose processes related to the production of clouds and precipitation in atmospheric columns. This process-related goal can be achieved through simultaneous knowledge of the vertical air motions and the cloud and precipitation microphysics in vertical columns over and in the vicinity of the ARM sites. In this paper we seek to explore the capacity for ARM measurements to simultaneously resolve the properties of clouds, precipitation and atmospheric vertical air motions. In particular, we examine the sensitivity of the science objectives to the ill posed nature of the inversion problem. We demonstrate that, under many circumstances, the background knowledge required to interpret the measurements is insufficient to the extent that little if any actual information is conveyed by the measurements regarding the microphysics extant in the atmosphere.