Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 10 2 2010 10.5194/acpd-10-3301-2010 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/3301/2010/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/3301/2010/acpd-10-3301-2010.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/3301/2010/acpd-10-3301-2010.pdf 3301 3318 2010-02-08 A comparison of ship and satellite measurements of cloud properties in the southeast Pacific stratus deck M. A. Brunke brunke@atmo.arizona.edu S. P. de Szoeke P. Zuidema X. Zeng The University of Arizona, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Tucson, Arizona, USA Oregon State University, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Corvallis, Oregon, USA University of Miami, Rosentiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Miami, Florida, USA Here, liquid water path (LWP), cloud fraction, cloud top height, and cloud base height are retrieved by a suite of satellite instruments (the CPR aboard CloudSat, CALIOP aboard CALIPSO, and MODIS aboard Aqua) and compared to ship observations from research cruises made in 2001 and 2003–2007 into the stratus/stratocumulus deck over the southeast Pacific Ocean. It is found that CloudSat LWP is generally too high over this region and the CloudSat/CALIPSO cloud bases are too low which is to be expected from the increased sensitivity to precipitation by both the radar and lidar. 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