Carl Schmitt

Associate Scientist
TIIMES - MMM
WCAS

Contact Information:
PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000
Office: FL3 - 3034
Telephone: 303-497-8905
Email: schmittc@ucar.edu
Home Page

Project Summary:

The bulk of my TIIMES research has been spent researching the properties of tropical cirrus cloud microphysical data from aircraft field projects. The properties of tropical cirrus cloud particles are important for a better understanding of Upper Troposphere Lower Stratosphere water vapor exchange as well as for radiative transfer applications. The fall speeds of sub-visible cirrus clouds is particularly important as slower fall speeds leads to longer cloud lifetimes. My research addresses the mass and area ice particles smaller than 100 microns. The mass of these particles (which is a critical parameter in the calculation of fall speed) appears to be over-estimated using current published mass dimensional relationships. Through data analysis and experimental work, my research will focus on improving the estimates of the masses of these small particles.

Publications:

Seifert, P., A. Ansmann, D.-J. Muller, U. Wandinger, D. Althausen, A. J. Heymsfield, S. T. Massie, C. Schmitt, 2007: Cirrus optical properties observed with lidar, radiosonde, and satellite over the tropical Indian Ocean during the aerosol-polluted northeast and clean maritime southwest monsoon. J. Geophys. Res., 112, D17205, doi: 10.1029/2006JD008352.

Heymsfield, A. J., C. Schmitt, A. Bansemer, G.-J. vanZadelhoff, M. J. McGill, C. Twohy, D. Baumgardner, 2007: Responses to comments on "Effective radius of ice cloud particle populations derived from aircraft probes" by Heymsfield et al, 2006. J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol., 24, 1511-1518, doi: 10.1175/JTECH2077.1.

Schmitt, C. G., A. J. Heymsfield, 2007: On the occurrence of hollow bullet rosette and column shaped ice crystals in mid-latitude cirrus. J. Atmos. Sci.. (In Press)

Massie, S. T., A. Heymsfield, C. Schmitt, D. Mueller, P. Seifert, 2007: Aerosol indirect effects as a function of cloud top pressure. J. Geophys. Res., 112, D06202, doi: 10.1029/2006JD007383.

Heymsfield, A. J., P. R. Field, A. Bansemer, C. Schmitt, 2007: FSSP ice particle shattering: Relationship to total ice water content and extinction. J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol.. (Submitted)

Mitchell, D. L., A. J. Baran, W. P. Arnott, C. G. Schmitt, 2006: Testing and comparing the modified anomalous diffraction approximation. J. Atmos. Sci., 63, 2948-2962, doi: 10.1175/JAS3775.1.