In situ measurements of liquid water content profiles in midlatitude stratiform clouds

Abstract Statistical characteristics of 584 liquid water content (LWC) profiles collected mainly in midlatitude supercooled stratiform frontal clouds during five field campaigns are presented. It has been found that the majority (55%) of liquid layers have thickness less than 500 m and the depth of these layers decreases with decreasing temperature. LWC profiles for thin cloud layers are usually close to quasi‐adiabatic, whereas for thick clouds they are approximately constant with an average LWC value close to 0.14 g m −3 . Good agreement was observed between cumulative distributions for liquid water paths derived from in situ LWC profiles and those inferred in previous experiments from ground‐based 37 GHz radiometers. Copyright © 2007 Crown in the right of Canada. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd