A unified synergistic retrieval of clouds, aerosols, and precipitation from EarthCARE: the ACM-CAP product

ACM-CAP provides a synergistic best-estimate retrieval of all clouds, aerosols, and precipitation detected by the atmospheric lidar (ATLID), cloud-profiling radar (CPR), and multi-spectral imager (MSI) aboard EarthCARE (Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer). While synergistic retrievals are now mature in many contexts, ACM-CAP is unique in that it provides a unified retrieval of all hydrometeors and aerosols. The Cloud, Aerosol, and Precipitation from mulTiple Instruments using a VAriational TEchnique (CAPTIVATE) algorithm allows for a robust accounting of observational and retrieval errors and the contributions of passive and integrated measurements and for enforcing physical relationships between components (e.g. the conservation of precipitating mass flux through the melting layer).