greater ice water throughout the profile than the southern
regions. Mean minimum 37 GHz PCT was lower in ConSW
than other continental regions (Table III), which might
indicate that ice hydrometeors aloft were larger in the
ConSW region as the 37 GHz channel is more sensitive to
larger ice particles.
Over MarS, a larger mean 37 GHz PCT depression
was observed compared to MarN. The explanation of
large ice particles seems unlikely, given the similarities
in both reflectivity and IWC profiles. Another possible
explanation may be present in the vertical distributions of
LWC (Figure 12). You et al. (2011) suggested that in the
presence of large amounts of ice and liquid hydrometeors
and surface rainfall (required for LWC to be calculated),
the 37 GHz channel shows a stronger response than other
microwave channels. More liquid water in MarS low-levels
than MarN, along with similar IWC distributions, would
support the larger 37 GHz depression in MarS. An increase
in LWC was observed moving eastward; however, the
relative profile shapes were quite different, with liquid water
increasing to near-surface at each location except for the
northern continental regions (where sub-cloud evaporation
dominated). The contribution of the convective portion of
systems to total liquid water mass was 40–68%, showing
that stratiform contribution to liquid water mass was greater
than for ice mass for all regions. Again variability was
observed between AEW phases, with the southerly phase