Developing and bounding ice particle mass- and area-dimension expressions for use in atmospheric models and remote sensing
Here, ice particle mass- and projected area-dimension ( m - D and A - D ) power laws are commonly used in the treatment of ice cloud microphysical and optical properties and the remote sensing of ice cloud properties. Although there has long been evidence that a single m - D or A - D power law is often not valid over all ice particle sizes, few studies have addressed this fact. This study develops self-consistent m - D and A - D expressions that are not power laws but can easily be reduced to power laws for the ice particle size (maximum dimension or D ) range of interest, and they are valid over a much larger D range than power laws. This was done by combining ground measurements of individual ice particle m and D formed at temperature T < –20 °C during a cloud seeding field campaign with 2-D stereo (2D-S) and cloud particle imager (CPI) probe measurements of D and A , and estimates of m , in synoptic and anvil ice clouds at similar temperatures. The resulting m - D and A - D expressions are functions of temperature and cloud type (synoptic vs. anvil), and are in good agreement with m - D power laws developed from recent field studies considering the same temperature range (–60 °C < T < –20 °C).