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The influence of clouds on radiation: A climate‐modeling perspective
Author(s) -
Fouquart Y.,
Buriez J. C.,
Herman M.,
Kandel R. S.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
reviews of geophysics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 8.087
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1944-9208
pISSN - 8755-1209
DOI - 10.1029/rg028i002p00145
Subject(s) - cloud cover , shortwave radiation , liquid water content , shortwave , environmental science , radiation , meteorology , liquid water , cloud computing , climate model , cloud physics , atmospheric sciences , radiative transfer , physics , computational physics , climate change , computer science , geology , optics , oceanography , thermodynamics , operating system
The influence of clouds on the radiation field is reviewed from the point of view of their representation in climate models. Such models are expected to include, in the very near future, condensed water as an additional prognostic variable. We examine how simple parameterizations based on the liquid water content can realistically simulate the radiation field. We focus on the extended low‐level clouds for which numerous results of simultaneous radiation and microphysics measurements are available. Particular attention is given to the shortwave absorption in cloud layers because theoretically calculated absorptances are generally weaker than those observed. The problem of the broken field is approached in terms of a relationship between the actual cloud cover and the equivalent cloud cover which gives the same irradiances but using the plane‐parallel formalism.