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. Convective clouds play an essential role for Earth'sclimate as well as for regional weather events since they have a largeinfluence on the radiation budget and the water cycle. In particular, cloudalbedo and the formation of precipitation are influenced by aerosol particleswithin clouds. In order to improve the understanding of processes fromaerosol activation, from cloud droplet growth to changes in cloud radiativeproperties, remote sensing techniques become more and more important. Whilepassive retrievals for spaceborne observations have become sophisticated andcommonplace for inferring cloud optical thickness and droplet size from cloudtops, profiles of droplet size have remained largely uncharted territory forpassive remote sensing. In principle they could be derived from observationsof cloud sides, but faced with the small-scale heterogeneity of cloud sides, “classical” passive remote sensing techniques are rendered inappropriate.In this work the feasibility is demonstrated to gain new insights into thevertical evolution of cloud droplet effective radius by using reflected solarradiation from cloud sides. Central aspect of this work on its path to aworking cloud side retrieval is the analysis of the impact unknown cloudsurface geometry has on effective radius retrievals. This study examines thesensitivity of reflected solar radiation to cloud droplet size, usingextensive 3-D radiative transfer calculations on the basis of realisticdroplet size resolving cloud simulations. Furthermore, it explores a furthertechnique to resolve ambiguities caused by illumination and cloud geometry byconsidering the surroundings of each pixel. Based on these findings, astatistical approach is used to provide an effective radius retrieval. Thisstatistical effective radius retrieval is focused on the liquid part ofconvective water clouds, e.g., cumulus mediocris, cumulus congestus, andtrade-wind cumulus, which exhibit well-developed cloud sides. Finally, thedeveloped retrieval is tested using known and unknown cloud side scenes toanalyze its performance.

Remote sensing of cloud droplet radius profiles using solar reflectance from cloud sides – Part 1: Retrieval development and characterization