Radiation transfer in finite cylindrical clouds

Abstract

An analytical method is developed for determining radiation transport in finite cylindrical clouds. The cylindrical form is taken as the idealized shape of cumulus clouds. In the shortwave part of the spectrum illumination by the direct solar beam is considered. In the infrared the cloud's emission as well as the radiation emitted by an underlying ground is taken into account. Numerical computations are carried out to illustrate the applicability of the technique developed in the present study. For a cloud in an absorbing midlatitude summer atmosphere results are shown for the shortwave region including spectral integration. Cloud transmission and albedo are presented as a function of solar zenith angle and as a function of the cloud's dimensions. The results are in agreement with published results from Monte Carlo calculations as far as a comparison is possible. Vertical profiles of the solar heating rate in the cylindrical cloud indicate the effect of the cloud's finite dimensions. Similarity as well as differences are found from comparison with results obtained for a cuboidal cloud from a finite analytical model that was tested successfully against Monte Carlo calculations.