Doppler lidar measurements of oriented planar ice crystals falling from supercooled and glaciated layer clouds

TL;DR

This study uses Doppler lidar to investigate the properties and behavior of oriented planar ice crystals falling from supercooled and glaciated clouds, revealing their formation, orientation, and fall speeds.

Contribution

It provides detailed observations of oriented ice crystals in clouds, linking their formation and fall behavior to temperature and cloud conditions, with new insights into their optical and fall characteristics.

Findings

Oriented crystals are frequently observed in mid-level mixed-phase clouds.

Crystals fall at about 0.3 m/s with weak temperature dependence.

Specular reflections diminish as crystals become rounded in subsaturated air.

Abstract

The properties of planar ice crystals settling horizontally have been investigated using a vertically-pointing Doppler lidar. Strong specular reflections were observed from their oriented basal facets, identified by comparison with a second lidar pointing 4deg from zenith. Analysis of 17 months of continuous high-resolution observations reveal that these pristine crystals are frequently observed in ice falling from mid-level mixed-phase layer clouds (85% of the time for layers at -15C). Detailed analysis of a case study indicates that the crystals are nucleated and grow rapidly within the supercooled layer, then fall out, forming well-defined layers of specular reflection. From the lidar alone the fraction of oriented crystals cannot be quantified, but polarimetric radar measurements confirmed that a substantial fraction of the crystal population was well oriented. As the crystals fall into subsaturated air, specular reflection is observed to switch off as the crystal faces become rounded and lose their faceted structure. Specular reflection in ice falling from supercooled layers colder than -22C was also observed, but was much less pronounced than at warmer temperatures: we suggest that in cold clouds it is the small droplets in the distribution that freeze into plates and produce specular reflection, whilst larger droplets freeze into complex polycrystals. The lidar Doppler measurements show that typical fall speeds for the oriented crystals are 0.3m/s, with a weak temperature correlation; the corresponding Reynolds number is Re~10, in agreement with light-pillar measurements. Coincident Doppler radar observations show no correlation between the specular enhancement and eddy dissipation rate, indicating that turbulence does not control crystal orientation in these clouds.