Abstract
Satellites measure radiance, and inspection of data from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) reveals that cloud cover does have an effect on the measured radiances over bright surfaces. MISR observations by employing a radiative transfer model to examine the effects of cloud micro- and macrophysical properties, surface albedo, sun and view angle on the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) measured bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF). In this paper, the effects of cloud optical depth and solar zenith angle on the transition surface albedo, defined here as the Lambertian surface albedo at which an atmosphere with a specified cloud cover has the same TOA BRF as an atmosphere without cloud cover, are presented. Above this transition surface albedo, cloudy regions are darker than clear regions, while below this albedo, the cloudy regions appear brighter than clear regions. This transition albedo varies dramatically with cloud optical depth solar zenith angle
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