We sometimes observed ice clouds (cirrus) that coexisted with an Asian-dust layer in the upper troposphere by a polarization lidar during Asian dust events over Tokyo, Japan in the springs of 1998 to 2000. Here we present such lidar observations during spring 2000. We discussed qualitatively a mechanism of the formation of the cirrus clouds combined with imageries of Geostationally Meteorological Satellite 5 (GMS-5) and the nearest radiosonde data. The water-vapor channel imagery indicates that the cirms was formed or enhanced over a high mountain area in the middle of Japan. The cirrus that we observed over Tokyo was a part of the cirrus flowed by the westerly wind. Asian dust particle seems to act as ice nuclei in the upper troposphere if the air mass merged with a humid air mass during the transportation.

Date Published: 13 February 2001
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 4153, Lidar Remote Sensing for Industry and Environment Monitoring, (13 February 2001); doi: 10.1117/12.417048

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4153:
Lidar Remote Sensing for Industry and Environment Monitoring
Upendra N. Singh; Upendra N. Singh; Kazuhiro Asai; Toshikasu Itabe; Toshihiro Ogawa; Nobuo Sugimoto, Editor(s)