Comparing simulated PSC optical properties with CALIPSO observations during the 2010 Antarctic winter

On the other hand, the CALIPSO data indicate that our simulations are missing clouds containing small NAT particles with large number densities. We suggest these particles are most likely to form from ice clouds or STS in gravity waves, as found by previous investigations. The simulated cloud coverage agrees with the CALIPSO cloud coverage within a few percent on average with a correlation coefficient of 0.83.

However, using the CALIPSO classification algorithm, simulated ice clouds often fall into Mix categories under the denitrified and dehydrated conditions. The model needs an improved ice microphysical representation, not only to allow ice particles to be a source of NAT but also to provide information on ice cloud particle number and size so that ice cloud optical properties can be more precisely calculated for comparison with CALIPSO data.