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Insights into the importance of cloud vertical structure in climate
Author(s) -
Weare Bryan C.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/1999gl011214
Subject(s) - radiative transfer , atmosphere (unit) , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , forcing (mathematics) , cloud computing , cloud forcing , radiative forcing , climate model , cloud feedback , satellite , meteorology , climatology , climate change , climate sensitivity , geology , physics , computer science , astronomy , operating system , oceanography , aerosol , quantum mechanics
Multi‐year surface and satellite observations of cloud amounts have been combined to estimate the full three‐dimensional structure of clouds for a three‐layer atmosphere. This analysis provides new insight into the vertical structure of clouds and the interactions with atmospheric radiation. For instance, a simple vertical overlap parameter has been derived which is very consistent with general climatology. In addition radiative transfer model calculations show that both the mean net heating rates within the atmosphere and the perturbations of cloud radiative forcing at the top are very sensitive to variations in the overlap parameter.