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Integrated Climate Data Center
CENIntegrated Climate Data Center ICDC

Foto: getty images/L. Calvetti

BaLiFOp (BAckscatter-LIdar Forward-OPerator)

Simulated device: Calibrated backscatter-lidar (300-4000 nm) such as Ceilometers

Contact: Armin Geisinger (a.geisinger @ uni-hohenheim.de)

Output parameter

Rayleigh and Mie scattering parameters,  extinction and backscatter efficiency (molecules and particles), received signal (photon number, received power, range-corrected signal)

Technical specification

Column or 3D? column based
Operation on model time step? yes
Required libraries Depends on application. Operator can be called as function, otherwise NetCDF is used for data import
Programming language IDL but is being translated to Fortran
If online, is it modular? The development version is an offline application. The stable version (1.0) is going to be implemented into COSMO-ART / ICON-ART as an interface.
Ground-based or space-borne? Ground-based (, airborne, spaceborne)

Usage

Minimum set of physical quantities:

  •  1D: Profiles of:
    - Temperature
    - Pressure
    - Number-size distribution of multiple parameter size-classes

Need for a special grid?

  •  Only vertical column required

Are parameters given via namelist or have to be coded?

  •  Standalone-Version: Set parameters during function call and read binary data. Included version:  Using an interface to set parameters using a namelist

Are there special requirements to the input quantities?

  •  no

Documentation:Under development for Version 1.0 of the operator

Models for application: COSMO-ART and (using a separate interface in the future) ICON-ART  

Format of input data: NetCDF but can be adapted to other formats

Format of output data:   NetCDF and for V 1.0 “feedback”-files

Computational costs: Calculation of a single profile: less than 1 second. Calculation of a time-series of profiles: less than 5 seconds (using vectorized and array-optimized IDL functions).

References

  • Geisinger, A., Behrendt, A., Wulfmeyer, V., Förstner, J., Flentje, H., Vogel, B. (2014) Development of a Backscatter-Lidar Forward Operator for the COSMO-ART Model. Poster contribution to the COSMO User Seminar 2014