Facility for Atmospheric Remote Sensing (FARS) Cirrus Measurements for FIRE III

From our Facility of Atmospheric Remote Sensing (FARS) in Salt Lake City, Utah, we have since December 1986 collected ground-truth data from cirrus clouds for aiding in satellite cloud detection algorithm testing and improvement, the development of cirrus radiative parameterizations, and basic cloud physics research. This research program has involved data regularly collected with a polarization ruby (0.694 micrometer) lidar system and a suit of passive (visible, infrared, and microwave) radiometers, although a number of comprehensive cloud case studies using the full compliment of remote sensors (i.e., 95 GHz polarimetric Doppler radar and high-resolution dual-wavelength Polarization Diversity Lidar, PDL) have also been obtained. Since our program began, a total of approximately 3,200 hours of lidar/radiometer data have been collected, resulting in a uniquely comprehensive, and climatologically-representative, high cloud dataset. In this report, we highlight our research accomplishments over the period of performance of this grant.