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Clouds in Antarctica are key elements that affect radiative forcing and thus Antarctic climate evolution. Although the vast majority of clouds are composed of ice crystals, a non-negligible fraction constitutes supercooled liquid water (SLW; water held in liquid form below 0 °C). Numerical weather prediction models have great difficulty in forecasting SLW clouds over Antarctica, favouring ice at the expense of liquid water and therefore incorrectly estimating the cloud radiative forcing. Remote-sensing observations of SLW clouds have been carried out for several years at Concordia Station (75° S, 123° E; 3233 m above mean sea level), combining active lidar measurements (SLW cloud detection) and passive HAMSTRAD microwave measurements (liquid water path, LWP). The present project aimed at in situ observations of SLW clouds using sondes developed by the company Anasphere, specifically designed for SLW content (SLWC) measurements. These SLWC sondes were coupled to standard meteorological pressure–temperature–humidity sondes from Vaisala and released under meteorological balloons. During the 2021–2022 summer campaign, 15 launches were made, of which 7 were scientifically exploitable above a height of 400 m above ground level, a threshold height imposed by the time the SLWC sonde takes to stabilize after launch. The three main outcomes from our analyses are as follows: (a) the first in situ observations so far of SLW clouds in Antarctica with SLWC sondes; (b) on average, the consistency of SLW cloud heights as observed by in situ sondes and remote-sensing lidar; and (c) the liquid water path (vertically integrated SLWC) deduced by the sondes being generally equal to or greater than the LWP remotely sensed by HAMSTRAD. In general, the SLW clouds were observed in a layer close to saturation (U > 80 %) or saturated (U ∼ 100 %–105 %) just below or at the lowermost part of the entrainment zone, or capping inversion zone, which exists at the top of the planetary boundary layer and is characterized by an inflection point in the potential temperature vertical profile. Our results are consistent with the theoretical view that SLW clouds form and remain at the top of the planetary boundary layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clouds affect the Earth climate with an impact that depends on the cloud nature (solid and/or liquid water). Although the Antarctic climate is changing rapidly, cloud observations are sparse over Antarctica due to few ground stations and satellite observations. The Concordia station is located on the eastern Antarctic Plateau (75 ∘ S, 123 ∘ E; 3233 m above mean sea level), one of the driest and coldest places on Earth. We used observations of clouds, temperature, liquid water, and surface irradiance performed at Concordia during four austral summers (December 2018–2021) to analyse the link between liquid water and temperature and its impact on surface irradiance in the presence of supercooled liquid water (liquid water for temperature less than 0 ∘ C) clouds (SLWCs). Our analysis shows that, within SLWCs, temperature logarithmically increases from -36.0 to -16.0 ∘ C when liquid water path increases from 1.0 to 14.0 g m -2. The SLWC radiative forcing is positive and logarithmically increases from 0.0 to 70.0 W m -2 when liquid water path increases from 1.2 to 3.5 g m -2. This is mainly due to the downward longwave component that logarithmically increases from 0 to 90 W m -2 when liquid water path increases from 1.0 to 3.5 g m -2. The attenuation of shortwave incoming irradiance (that can reach more than 100 W m -2) is almost compensated for by the upward shortwave irradiance because of high values of surface albedo. Based on our study, we can extrapolate that, over the Antarctic continent, SLWCs have a maximum radiative forcing that is rather weak over the eastern Antarctic Plateau (0 to 7 W m -2) but 3 to 5 times larger over West Antarctica (0 to 40 W m -2), maximizing in summer and over the Antarctic Peninsula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive analysis of the water budget over the Dome C (Concordia, Antarctica) station has been performed during the austral summer 2018–2019 as part of the Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP) international campaign. Thin (∼100 m deep) supercooled liquid water (SLW) clouds have been detected and analysed using remotely sensed observations at the station (tropospheric depolarization lidar, the H2O Antarctica Microwave Stratospheric and Tropospheric Radiometer (HAMSTRAD), net surface radiation from the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN)), radiosondes, and satellite observations (CALIOP, Cloud-Aerosol LIdar with Orthogonal Polarization/CALIPSO, Cloud Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations) combined with a specific configuration of the numerical weather prediction model: ARPEGE-SH (Action de Recherche Petite Echelle Grande Echelle – Southern Hemisphere). The analysis shows that SLW clouds were present from November to March, with the greatest frequency occurring in December and January when ∼50 % of the days in summer time exhibited SLW clouds for at least 1 h. Two case studies are used to illustrate this phenomenon. On 24 December 2018, the atmospheric planetary boundary layer (PBL) evolved following a typical diurnal variation, which is to say with a warm and dry mixing layer at local noon thicker than the cold and dry stable layer at local midnight. Our study showed that the SLW clouds were observed at Dome C within the entrainment and the capping inversion zones at the top of the PBL. ARPEGE-SH was not able to correctly estimate the ratio between liquid and solid water inside the clouds with the liquid water path (LWP) strongly underestimated by a factor of 1000 compared to observations. The lack of simulated SLW in the model impacted the net surface radiation that was 20–30 W m -2 higher in the BSRN observations than in the ARPEGE-SH calculations, mainly attributable to the BSRN longwave downward surface radiation being 50 W m -2 greater than that of ARPEGE-SH. The second case study took place on 20 December 2018, when a warm and wet episode impacted the PBL with no clear diurnal cycle of the PBL top. SLW cloud appearance within the entrainment and capping inversion zones coincided with the warm and wet event. The amount of liquid water measured by HAMSTRAD was ∼20 times greater in this perturbed PBL than in the typical PBL. Since ARPEGE-SH was not able to accurately reproduce these SLW clouds, the discrepancy between the observed and calculated net surface radiation was even greater than in the typical PBL case, reaching +50 W m -2 , mainly attributable to the downwelling longwave surface radiation from BSRN being 100 W m -2 greater than that of ARPEGE-SH. The model was then run with a new partition function favouring liquid water for temperatures below -20 down to -40 ∘ C. In this test mode, ARPEGE-SH has been able to generate SLW clouds with modelled LWP and net surface radiation consistent with observations during the typical case, whereas, during the perturbed case, the modelled LWP was 10 times less than the observations and the modelled net surface radiation remained lower than the observations by ∼50 W m -2. Accurately modelling the presence of SLW clouds appears crucial to correctly simulate the surface energy budget over the Antarctic Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Episodes of thick cloud and diamond dust/ice fog were observed during 15 March to 8 April 2011 and 4 to 5 March 2013 in the atmosphere above Dome C (Concordia station, Antarctica; 75°06' S, 123°21' E; 3233 m a.m.s.l.). The objectives of the paper are mainly to investigate the processes that cause these episodes based on observations and to verify whether operational models can evaluate them. The measurements were obtained from the following instruments: (1) a ground-based microwave radiometer (HAMSTRAD, H2O Antarctica Microwave Stratospheric and Tropospheric Radiometers) installed at Dome C that provided vertical profiles of tropospheric temperature and absolute humidity every 7 min; (2) daily radiosoundings launched at 12:00 UTC at Dome C; (3) a tropospheric aerosol lidar that provides aerosol depolarization ratio along the vertical at Dome C; (4) down- and upward short- and long-wave radiations as provided by the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) facilities; (5) an ICE-CAMERA to detect at an hourly rate the size of the ice crystal grains deposited at the surface of the camera; and (6) space-borne aerosol depolarization ratio from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) lidar aboard the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) platform along orbits close to the Dome C station. The time evolution of the atmosphere has also been evaluated by considering the outputs from the mesoscale AROME and the global-scale ARPEGE meteorological models. Thick clouds are detected during the warm and wet periods (24-26 March 2011 and 4 March 2013) with high depolarization ratios (greater than 30 %) from the surface to 5-7 km above the ground associated with precipitation of ice particles and the presence of a supercooled liquid water (depolarization less than 10 %) clouds. Diamond dust and/or ice fog are detected during the cold and dry periods (5 April 2011 and 5 March 2013) with high depolarization ratios (greater than 30 %) in the planetary boundary layer to a maximum altitude of 100-300 m above the ground with little trace of precipitation. Considering 5-day back trajectories, we show that the thick cloud episodes are attributed to air masses with an oceanic origin whilst the diamond dust/ice fog episodes are attributed to air masses with continental origins. Although operational models can reproduce thick cloud episodes in the free troposphere, they cannot evaluate the diamond dust/ice fog episodes in the planetary boundary layer because they require to use more sophisticated cloud and aerosol microphysics schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]