Liquid water content and precipitation characteristics of stratiform clouds as inferred from satellite microwave measurements

In this paper we present an analysis of the integrated liquid water content and precipitation characteristics of stratiform clouds using data from the Nimbus 7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) for January 1979, over the North Atlantic Ocean (40°–60°N). Concurrent analysis of the SMMR data with the U.S. Air Force 3‐Dimensional Nephanalysis (3DNEPH) allows the interpretation of the SMMR‐derived liquid water paths and precipitation characteristics in terms of cloud type, cloud fraction, and cloud height. Combining the initialized analyses from the European Center for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) with the 3DNEPH enables vertical temperature and humidity profiles to be incorporated into the retrievals. The interpretation and presentation of our results are guided by their implications for the parameterization of liquid water content of layer clouds in largescale atmospheric models. The average liquid water paths for middle and low clouds were determined to be 115 and 102 g m−2, respectively, with a maximum value of 1070 g m−2. A comparison of the SMMR‐derived values of the liquid water path with the adiabatic liquid water path determined from the 3DNEPH cloud data and the ECMWF temperature profiles indicated that these clouds were for the most part substantially diluted by a combination of precipitation, freezing, and entrainment. Analysis of the liquid water path as a function of temperature showed that clouds with average temperature below 246 K had little liquid water and were inferred to be predominantly crystalline. There was little evidence that cloud liquid water path increases with temperature for cloudiness on a large scale, suggesting that cloud thickness plays the dominant role in determining cloud liquid water path. A total of 8.5% and 4.4% of the total middle and low clouds, respectively, were determined to be raining. Liquid water paths of 350 g m−2 and 500 g m−2 for middle and low clouds, respectively, were determined to be average thresholds for the onset of precipitation. Maximum rain rates for these clouds were determined to be 7 mm h−1. The autoconversion of cloud water to rain water was determined to occur at a rate of 0.001 s−1.