Abstract
The possible interaction and modification of cloud properties due to aerosols is one of the most poorly understood mechanisms within climate studies, resulting in the most significant uncertainty as regards radiation budgeting. In this study, we explore direct ground based remote sensing methods to assess the Aerosol-Cloud Indirect Effect directly, as space-borne retrievals are not directly suitable for simultaneous aerosol/cloud retrievals. To illustrate some of these difficulties, a statistical assessment of existing multispectral imagers on geostationary (e.g., GOES)/Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite retrievals of the Cloud Droplet Effective Radius (Reff) showed significant biases especially at larger solar zenith angles, further motivating the use of ground based remote sensing approaches. In particular, we discuss the potential of using a combined Microwave Radiometer (MWR)—Multi-Filter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer (MFRSR) system for real-time monitoring of Cloud Optical Depth (COD) and Cloud Droplet Effective Radius (Reff), which are combined with aerosol vertical properties from an aerosol lidar. An iterative approach combining the simultaneous observations from MFRSR and MWR are used to retrieve the COD and Reff for thick cloud cases and are extensively validated using the DoE Southern Great Plains (SGP) retrievals as well as regression based parameterized model retrievals. In addition, we account for uncertainties in background aerosol, surface albedo and the combined measurement uncertainties from the MWR and MFRSR in order to provide realistic uncertainty estimates, which is found to be ~10% for the parameter range of interest in Aerosol-Cloud Interactions. Finally, we analyze a particular case of possible aerosol-cloud interaction described in the literature at the SGP site and demonstrate that aerosol properties obtained at the surface can lead to inconclusive results in comparison to lidar-derived aerosol properties near the cloud base.
Highlights
One of the outstanding issues regarding the earth’s energy balance and subsequent climate budget are the indirect effects that aerosols have on cloud radiative properties
In our comparisons against PAR, maximum relative fractional differences are less than 5% and 8% for Cloud Optical Thickness (COD) and Reff respectively were obtained when compared with the MIN retrievals at Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) site
We have highlighted the capability of surface remote sensing as a crucial method in avoiding the ambiguity of statistically-based satellite aerosol/cloud interaction studies
Summary
One of the outstanding issues regarding the earth’s energy balance and subsequent climate budget are the indirect effects that aerosols have on cloud radiative properties. This result indicates that a satellite remote sensing approach to quantifying CDNC should be a reasonable proxy for aerosol signatures (at least for relatively clean maritime conditions) in exploring aerosol-cloud interaction To utilize this observation, Han et al [6], studied the correlations between LWP and CDNC for warm water clouds (cloud-top temperature > 273 K, optical thickness 1 < τc < 15). 1.6, 3.9, and 12 or 13.3 μm in addition to the original VIS (0.65 μm) and IR (10.8 μm) channels have led to the operational retrieval of optical depth, effective radius and LWP and motivates the possibility of following the cloud through its lifecycle as it is transported in polluted areas [7] Even in this case, a large number of issues degrading the observations can be expected.
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