Airborne Remote Sensing of Arctic Clouds

Airborne remote sensing of Arctic clouds builds a bridge between long-term ground-based measurements and space-borne satellite observations and allows to apply innovative active and passive remote sensing techniques. However, Arctic conditions with bright snow and sea ice surfaces, the low or absent Sun, and the presence of mixed-phase clouds are challenging for the retrieval of cloud properties, especially for passive instruments using solar radiations. It will be shown, how spectrally resolved observations of reflected solar radiation can reduce the uncertainties of cloud remote sensing in the Arctic. The potential of directional observations covering a wide range of scattering angles at the cloud top is outlined. Finally, the advantage of spectral imaging observations to study maps of cloud properties with high spatial resolution is demonstrated.