A Summary of the Physical Properties of Cirrus Clouds

A review of existing literature is made to determine typical values for the physical properties cirrus clouds. The properties examined (with typical values and measured ranges) are cloud-center altitude (9 km, 4 to 20 km), cloud thickness (1.5 km, 0.1 to 8 km), crystal number density (30 L−1, 10−4 to 10−4 L−1), condensed water content (0.025 g m −3, 10−4 to 1.2 g m −3), and crystal size (250 μm, 1 to 8000 μm). A typical crystal size distribution is also reported.