Mother-of-pearl cloud particle size and composition from aircraft-based photography of coloration and lidar measurements.

During a Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas (SAGE)-III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE)-II science flight on 4 February 2003, a mother-of-pearl cloud over Iceland was underflown by the NASA DC-8 and measured with the lidars onboard. In addition, color photos were taken during the approach. Aided by extensive modeling of cloud coloration, the main results of the analysis of this unique data set are: (1) the polar stratospheric cloud was mountain wave-induced and of type II; (2) the spectacular color display was caused by ice particles with sizes around 2 μm.