ACPD Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions ACPD 1680-7375 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acpd-11-29093-2011 Thermal structure of intense convective clouds derived from GPS radio occultations Biondi R. 1 Randel W. J. 2 Ho S.-P. 3 Neubert T. 1 Syndergaard S. 4 DTU Space, National Space Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark NCAR, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder CO, USA NCAR-UCAR/COSMIC, Boulder CO, USA DMI, Danish Meteorological Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark 27 10 2011 11 10 29093 29116 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/11/29093/2011/acpd-11-29093-2011.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/11/29093/2011/acpd-11-29093-2011.pdf

Thermal structure associated with deep convective clouds is investigated using Global Positioning System (GPS) radio occultation measurements. GPS data are insensitive to the presence of clouds, and provide high vertical resolution and high accuracy measurements to identify associated temperature behavior. Deep convective systems are identified using International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) satellite data, and cloud tops are accurately measured using Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIPSO) lidar observations; we focus on 53 cases of near-coincident GPS occultations with CALIPSO profiles over deep convection. Results show a sharp spike in GPS bending angle highly correlated to the top of the clouds, corresponding to anomalously cold temperatures within the clouds. Above the clouds the temperatures return to background conditions, and there is a strong inversion at cloud top. For cloud tops below 14 km, the temperature lapse rate within the cloud often approaches a moist adiabat, consistent with rapid undiluted ascent within the convective systems.

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