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Some observations of the optical properties of clouds. II: Cirrus
Author(s) -
Foot J. S.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49711447908
Subject(s) - cirrus , radiance , effective radius , cloud physics , infrared , albedo (alchemy) , scattering , absorption (acoustics) , physics , ice cloud , wavelength , optical depth , atmospheric sciences , radiative transfer , single scattering albedo , computational physics , remote sensing , radius , environmental science , cloud computing , meteorology , optics , astrophysics , geology , aerosol , art , computer security , galaxy , performance art , computer science , art history , operating system
Aircraft measurements of broad‐band infrared and solar irradiances together with radiance measurements at discrete angles and wavelengths are used, combined with microphysical observations, to investigate the optical properties of cirrus cloud. Results are found to be consistent with approximations appropriate to large particles with strong absorption in the thermal infrared. The observed angular scattering pattern is compared with other limited observational results and found to be consistent with them. Implications for predicting cloud albedo are discussed. An effective radius for the ice particles is also defined to enable solar absorption within the cloud to be predicted. Observations in the near‐infrared are shown to be consistent with this definition although the agreement is dependent on a number of assumptions.