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Solar radiative transfer for stratiform clouds with horizontal variations in liquid‐water path and droplet effective radius
Author(s) -
Räisänen Petri,
Isaac George A.,
Barker Howard W.,
Gultepe Ismail
Publication year - 2003
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 - 10.1256/qj.02.149
Subject(s) - liquid water path , radiative transfer , effective radius , environmental science , liquid water content , albedo (alchemy) , atmospheric sciences , cloud albedo , radius , radiation , horizontal plane , meteorology , atmospheric radiative transfer codes , physics , cloud computing , geology , cloud cover , optics , astrophysics , geodesy , art , computer security , galaxy , performance art , computer science , art history , operating system
Effects of horizontal variations in liquid‐water path (LWP) and droplet effective radius ( r e ) on solar radiative‐transfer properties of stratiform clouds are addressed. To this end, a broadband Monte Carlo solar radiation code and in situ aircraft observations of cloud properties collected in the Radiation, Aerosol and Cloud Experiment are used. The experiments confirm that the radiative impact of cloud horizontal inhomogeneity is dominated by variations in LWP, which make cloud short‐wave albedo smaller than that for a corresponding plane‐parallel horizontally homogeneous cloud. When horizontal variations in r e are accounted for, however, the impact due to horizontal variations in LWP is usually reduced. When r e and LWP are highly correlated, as is typically the case, the impact on albedo due to LWP variations alone can be reduced easily by 30% when variations in r e are included. Uncertainty factors involved in the calculations are also discussed. Copyright © 2003 Royal Meteorological Society.