The radiative effect of boundary layer clouds: Can aircraft measurements improve regional estimates?
Abstract
We discuss some of the observational challenges in determining the radiative effects of boundary layer clouds: complex spatial structure, aerosols above and between clouds, and bright surfaces. Many of these cause problems for passive imagery retrievals from polar-orbiting and geostationary satellites, which will remain a key component of our observational system even as active sensors become more widely used. The question is: To what extent do the various assumptions and simplifications in passive retrieval algorithms and other observational approaches translate into systematic biases in cloud-aerosol radiative effects that survive spatial, temporal, or regional data aggregation of pixel-level data? Aircraft observations are optimally suited to address this question because they link the perspectives from above, below and within a layer. We will demonstrate how data from field experiments have been used in conjunction with radiative transfer calculations to reconcile imagery-based estimates of radiative fluxes with direct observational constraints, and to segregate the effects of clouds, aerosols, and atmospheric gases. Aircraft observations have the potential to complement, validate and improve radiation-related satellite observations, which in turn provide the statistics for assessing large-scale effects. By combining the strengths of orbital and sub-orbital observations, it will be possible to tackle the complex reality of cloud and aerosol radiative effects in the foreseeable future.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFM.A42C..07S
- Keywords:
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- 3305 Climate change and variability;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSESDE: 3307 Boundary layer processes;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSESDE: 3310 Clouds and cloud feedbacks;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSESDE: 3311 Clouds and aerosols;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES