Radiative Energy Budget Research Articles

Estimation of the Aerosol Radiative Effect over the Tibetan Plateau Based on the Latest CALIPSO Product

Based on the CALIPSO (Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation) Version 4.10 products released on 8 November 2016, the Level 2 (L2) aerosol product over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is evaluated and the aerosol radiative effect is also estimated in this study. As there are still some missing aerosol data points in the daytime CALIPSO Version 4.10 L2 product, this study re-calculated the aerosol extinction coefficient to explore the aerosol radiative effect over the TP based on the CALIPSO Level 1 (L1) and CloudSat 2B-CLDCLASS-LIDAR products. The energy budget estimation obtained by using the AODs (aerosol optical depths) from calculated aerosol extinction coefficient as an input to a radiative transfer model shows better agreement with the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) and CloudSat 2B-FLXHR-LIDAR observations than that with the input of AODs from aerosol extinction coefficient from CALIPSO Version 4.10 L2 product. The radiative effect and heating rate of aerosols over the TP are further simulated by using the calculated aerosol extinction coefficient. The dust aerosols may heat the atmosphere by retaining the energy in the layer. The instantaneous heating rate can be as high as 5.5 K day–1 depending on the density of the dust layers. Overall, the dust aerosols significantly affect the radiative energy budget and thermodynamic structure of the air over the TP, mainly by altering the shortwave radiation budget. The significant influence of dust aerosols over the TP on the radiation budget may have important implications for investigating the atmospheric circulation and future regional and global climate.

Less absorbed solar energy and more internal heat for Jupiter

The radiant energy budget and internal heat are fundamental properties of giant planets, but precise determination of these properties remains a challenge. Here, we report measurements of Jupiter’s radiant energy budget and internal heat based on Cassini multi-instrument observations. Our findings reveal that Jupiter’s Bond albedo and internal heat, 0.503 ± 0.012 and 7.485 ± 0.160 W m−2 respectively, are significantly larger than 0.343 ± 0.032 and 5.444 ± 0.425 Wm−2, the previous best estimates. The new results help constrain and improve the current evolutionary theories and models for Jupiter. Furthermore, the significant wavelength dependency of Jupiter’s albedo implies that the radiant energy budgets and internal heat of the other giant planets in our solar system should be re-examined. Finally, the data sets of Jupiter’s characteristics of reflective solar spectral irradiance provide an observational basis for the models of giant exoplanets.

Gravitational waves from gauge preheating

We study gravitational wave production during Abelian gauge-field preheating following inflation. We consider both scalar and pseudoscalar inflaton models coupled directly to Abelian gauge fields via either a dilatonic coupling to the gauge-field kinetic term or an axial coupling to a Chern-Simons term. In both cases gravitational waves are produced efficiently during the preheating phase, with a signature louder than most cosmological signals. These gravitational waves can contribute to the radiation energy budget of Universe at a level which will be probed by upcoming cosmic microwave background experiments through $N_{\rm eff}$. For axially coupled fields the resulting gravitational wave spectrum is helically polarized---a unique feature that can be used to differentiate it from other stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds. We compute the gravitational topological charge and demonstrate that gauge preheating following axion inflation may be responsible for the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe via gravitational leptogenesis.

Radiation Component Calculation and Energy Budget Analysis for the Korean Peninsula Region

In this study, a radiation component calculation algorithm was developed using channel data from the Himawari-8 Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) and meteorological data from the Unified Model (UM) Local Data Assimilation and Prediction System (LDAPS). In addition, the energy budget of the Korean Peninsula region in 2016 was calculated and its regional differences were analyzed. Radiation components derived using the algorithm were calibrated using the broadband radiation component data from the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) to improve their accuracy. The calculated radiation components and the CERES data showed an annual mean percent bias of less than 3.5% and a high correlation coefficient of over 0.98. The energy budget of the Korean Peninsula region was −2.4 Wm−2 at the top of the atmosphere (RT), −14.5 Wm−2 at the surface (RS), and 12.1 Wm−2 in the atmosphere (RA), with regional energy budget differences. The Seoul region had a high surface temperature (289.5 K) and a RS of −33.4 Wm−2 (surface emission), whereas the Sokcho region had a low surface temperature (284.7 K) and a RS of 5.0 Wm−2 (surface absorption), for a difference of 38.5 Wm−2. In short, regions with relatively high surface temperatures tended to show energy emission, and regions with relatively low surface temperatures tended to show energy absorption. Such regional energy imbalances can cause weather and climate changes and bring about meteorological disasters, and thus research on detecting energy budget changes must be continued.

ICARE-VEG: A 3D physics-based atmospheric correction method for tree shadows in urban areas

Many applications dedicated to urban areas (e.g. land cover mapping and biophysical properties estimation) using high spatial resolution remote sensing images require the use of 3D atmospheric correction methods, able to model complex light interactions within urban topography such as buildings and trees. Currently, one major drawback of these methods is their lack in modeling the radiative signature of trees (e.g. the light transmitted through the tree crown), which leads to an over-estimation of ground reflectance at tree shadows. No study has been carried out to take into account both optical and structural properties of trees in the correction provided by these methods. The aim of this work is to improve an existing 3D atmospheric correction method, ICARE (Inversion Code for urban Areas Reflectance Extraction), to account for trees in its new version, ICARE-VEG (ICARE with VEGetation). After the execution of ICARE, the methodology of ICARE-VEG consists in tree crown delineation and tree shadow detection, and then the application of a physics-based correction factor in order to perform a tree-specific local correction for each pixel in tree shadow. A sensitivity analysis with a design of experiments performed with a 3D canopy radiative transfer code, DART (Discrete Anisotropic Radiative Transfer), results in fixing the two most critical variables contributing to the impact of an isolated tree crown on the radiative energy budget at tree shadow: the solar zenith angle and the tree leaf area index (LAI). Thus, the approach to determine the correction factor relies on an empirical statistical regression and the addition of a geometric scaling factor to account for the tree crown occultation from ground. ICARE-VEG and ICARE performance were compared and validated in the Visible-Near Infrared Region (V-NIR: 0.4–1.0 µm) with hyperspectral airborne data at 0.8 m resolution on three ground materials types, grass, asphalt and water. Results show that (i) ICARE-VEG improves the mean absolute error in retrieved reflectances compared to ICARE in tree shadows by a multiplicative factor ranging between 4.2 and 18.8, and (ii) reduces the spectral bias in reflectance from visible to NIR (due to light transmission through the tree crown) by a multiplicative factor between 1.0 and 1.4 in terms of spectral angle mapper performance. ICARE-VEG opens the way to a complete interpretation of remote sensing images (sunlit, shade cast by both buildings and trees) and the derivation of scientific value-added products over all the entire image without the preliminary step of shadow masking.

Downscaling of surface air temperature over the Tibetan Plateau based on DEM

Surface air temperature (Ta) is critical to the studies of radiation balance, energy budget, and water cycle. It is a necessary input for associated models. Most of the current Ta datasets of reanalysis products have limitations at local scales due to their coarse spatial resolutions. For better modeling the radiation balance, energy budget, and water cycle over the Tibetan Plateau, this study proposes a practical method for Ta downscaling based on the digital elevation model. This method is applied to downscale Ta of the China regional surface meteorological feature dataset (CRSMFD) at 0.1° and the ERA-interim (ERAI) product at 0.125° to 0.01°. The daily mean Ta and the 3-hourly instantaneous Ta with a 0.01° are obtained. The downscaled Ta are evaluated from the perspectives of accuracy and image quality. Results show that the daily mean Ta downscaled from the CRSMFD product has a RMSE of 1.13 ± 1.0 K at 105 meteorological stations and RMSEs of 0.96 K to 2.34 K at three experimental stations; the instantaneous Ta downscaled from CRSMFD has RMSEs of 1.02 K to 4.0 K at the three experimental stations. Ta after downscaling has better agreement with the ground measured Ta than before downscaling, especially in mountain areas. By contrast, Ta downscaled from the ERAI product has unacceptable accuracy due to the great uncertainty of the ERAI Ta over the Tibetan Plateau. With the proposed method, a 0.01° Ta dataset from 2000 to 2015 over the Tibetan Plateau was generated to satisfy related studies and applications.

A high-performance atmospheric radiation package: With applications to the radiative energy budgets of giant planets

A High-performance Atmospheric Radiation Package (HARP) is developed for studying multiple-scattering planetary atmospheres. HARP is an open-source program written in C + + that utilizes high-level data structure and parallel-computing algorithms. It is generic in three aspects. First, the construction of the model atmospheric profile is generic. The program can either take in an atmospheric profile or construct an adiabatic thermal and compositional profile, taking into account the clouds and latent heat release due to condensation. Second, the calculation of opacity is generic, based on line-by-line molecular transitions and tabulated continuum data, along with a table of correlated-k opacity provided as an option to speed up the calculation of energy fluxes. Third, the selection of the solver for the radiative transfer equation is generic. The solver is not hardwired in the program. Instead, based on the purpose, a variety of radiative transfer solvers can be chosen to couple with the atmosphere model and the opacity model.We use the program to investigate the radiative heating and cooling rates of all four giant planets in the Solar System. Our Jupiter's result is consistent with previous publications. Saturn has nearly perfect balance between the heating rate and cooling rate. Uranus has the least radiative fluxes because of the lack of CH4 and its photochemical products. Both Uranus and Neptune suffer from a severe energy deficit in their stratospheres. Possible ways to resolve this issue are discussed. Finally, we recalculate the radiative time constants of all four giant planet atmospheres and find that the traditional values from (Conrath BJ, Gierasch PJ, Leroy SS. Temperature and Circulation in the Stratosphere of the Outer Planets. Icar. 1990;83:255–81) are significantly overestimated.

Analysis of Radiation Energy Budget Using WISE Observation Data on the Seoul Metropolitan Area

Analysis of Radiation Energy Budget Using WISE Observation Data on the Seoul Metropolitan Area

Automated detection of cloud and aerosol features with SACOL micro-pulse lidar in northwest China.

The detection of cloud and aerosols using a modified retrieval algorithm solely for a ground-based micropulse lidar (MPL) is presented, based on one-year data at the Semi-Arid Climate Observatory and Laboratory (SACOL) site (35.57°N, 104.08°E, 1965.8 m), northwest of China, from March 2011 to February 2012. The work not only identifies atmosphere particle layers by means of the range-dependent thresholds based on elastic scattering ratio and depolarization ratio, but also discriminates the detected layers by combining empirical thresholds of the atmosphere's thermodynamics states and scattering properties and continuous wavelet transform (CWT) analyses. Two cases were first presented in detail that demonstrated that the modified algorithm can capture atmosphere layers well. The cloud macro-physical properties including cloud base height (CBH), cloud geometrical thickness (CGT), and cloud fraction (CF) were then analyzed in terms of their monthly and seasonal variations. It is shown that the maximum/minimum CBHs were found in summer (4.66 ± 1.95km)/autumn (3.34 ± 1.84km). The CGT in winter (1.05 ± 0.43km) is slightly greater than in summer (0.99 ± 0.44km). CF varies significantly throughout year, with the maximum value in autumn (0.68), and a minimum (0.58) in winter, which is dominated by single-layered clouds (81%). The vertical distribution of CF shows a bimodal distribution, with a lower peak between 1 and 4km and a higher one between 6and 9km. The seasonal and vertical variations in CF are important for the local radiative energy budget.

A warming tropical central Pacific dries the lower stratosphere

The amount of water vapor in the tropical lower stratosphere (TLS), which has an important influence on the radiative energy budget of the climate system, is modulated by the temperature variability of the tropical tropopause layer (TTL). The TTL temperature variability is caused by a complex combination of the stratospheric quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO), tropospheric convective processes in the tropics, and the Brewer–Dobson circulation (BDC) driven by mid-latitude and subtropical atmospheric waves. In 2000, the TLS water vapor amount exhibited a stepwise transition to a dry phase, apparently caused by a change in the BDC. In this study, we present observational and modeling evidence that the epochal change of water vapor between the periods of 1992–2000 and 2001–2005 was also partly caused by a concurrent sea surface temperature (SST) warming in the tropical central Pacific. This SST warming cools the TTL above by enhancing the equatorial wave-induced upward motion near the tropopause, which consequently reduces the amount of water vapor entering the stratosphere. The QBO affects the TLS water vapor primarily on inter-annual timescales, whereas a classical El Nino southern oscillation (ENSO) event has small effect on tropical mean TLS water vapor because its responses are longitudinally out of phase. This study suggests that the tropical central Pacific SST is another driver of TLS water vapor variability on inter-decadal timescales and the tropical SST changes could contribute to about 30% of the step-wise drop of the lower stratospheric water vapor from 1992–2000 to 2001–2005.

Radiative Energy Budgets of Phototrophic Surface-Associated Microbial Communities and their Photosynthetic Efficiency Under Diffuse and Collimated Light.

We investigated the radiative energy budgets of a heterogeneous photosynthetic coral reef sediment and a compact uniform cyanobacterial biofilm on top of coastal sediment. By combining electrochemical, thermocouple and fiber-optic microsensor measurements of O2, temperature and light, we could calculate the proportion of the absorbed light energy that was either dissipated as heat or conserved by photosynthesis. We show, across a range of different incident light regimes, that such radiative energy budgets are highly dominated by heat dissipation constituting up to 99.5% of the absorbed light energy. Highest photosynthetic energy conservation efficiency was found in the coral sediment under low light conditions and amounted to 18.1% of the absorbed light energy. Additionally, the effect of light directionality, i.e., diffuse or collimated light, on energy conversion efficiency was tested on the two surface-associated systems. The effects of light directionality on the radiative energy budgets of these phototrophic communities were not unanimous but, resulted in local spatial differences in heat-transfer, gross photosynthesis, and light distribution. The light acclimation index, Ek, i.e., the irradiance at the onset of saturation of photosynthesis, was >2 times higher in the coral sediment compared to the biofilm and changed the pattern of photosynthetic energy conservation under light-limiting conditions. At moderate to high incident irradiances, the photosynthetic conservation of absorbed energy was highest in collimated light; a tendency that changed in the biofilm under sub-saturating incident irradiances, where higher photosynthetic efficiencies were observed under diffuse light. The aim was to investigate how the physical structure and light propagation affected energy budgets and light utilization efficiencies in loosely organized vs. compact phototrophic sediment under diffuse and collimated light. Our results suggest that the optical properties and the structural organization of phytoelements are important traits affecting the photosynthetic efficiency of biofilms and sediments.

Cloud macrophysical properties from KAZR at the SACOL

Clouds are one of the most important components in the climate system through their profound effects on the radiative energy budget. However, due to the lack of accurate representation of clouds in global climate models, they are the major source of uncertainties for the future climate projections. Millimeter wavelength Cloud Radars (MMCRs) are powerful instruments that can resolve vertical structure as well as microphysical properties of clouds. The wavelength of MMCRs, which is shorter than those of weather radars, allows an excellent sensitivity to cloud droplets and ice crystals while being much longer than lidar wavelengths enables MMCRs to penetrate multiple cloud layers. Ka-Band Zenith Radar (KAZR), which has been deployed at the Semi-Arid Climate and Environment Observatory of Lanzhou University (SACOL) since July 2013, has been continuously operated for three years. By applying a cloud mask algorithm that is operationally employed in the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program to distinguish radar echoes from noise, we analyze the macrophysical properties of clouds above the SACOL site by using the KAZR observations through 2014. It is shown that the occurrence of cloud base peaks at both 1.5 and 5.5 km while the cloud top peaks at 2.5 and 8.5 km. About 67% of the cloud thickness is within 2 km. The heights of cloud base and top in spring and summer are higher than autumn and winter. The diurnal cycles of cloud top and base are significant in summer and autumn but not in spring and winter. In summer, both the cloud base and top heights increase after sunrise and then decrease from mid-afternoon to midnight, while the cloud base and cloud top heights increase from noon to midnight in autumn. These seasonal features of diurnal changes may be closely related to the cloud formation mechanism and seasonal variations of solar radiation. Clouds over the SACOL can be classified as low, middle and high clouds based on the cloud height and thickness. The monthly mean occurrence of all clouds varies between 44% and 76%. The occurrence of low, middle and high clouds is 13%, 30%, 34%, respectively. The occurrence of middle and high clouds does not show a significant difference except for spring when the high clouds occur more often than middle clouds. Low clouds, however, occur less frequently throughout the year than the other two cloud types. Clouds can also be classified based on the number of cloud layers. Clouds with layers less than three contribute to ~98% of the total clouds and multi-layer clouds occur frequently in summer and autumn. This may be a result of the convection that is more likely to happen in summer and autumn and will induce a vertical distribution of clouds. The cloud base and top heights detected by KAZR, CloudSat and CALIPSO are also compared in this study. We find that the differences in cloud base and top heights between CloudSat and KAZR are less than 0.12 km. The reflectivities detected by CloudSat are comparable with those from KAZR. CloudSat cannot detect clouds with weak signal less than −30 dBZ due to the limitation of its sensitivity. This part of missing clouds can be captured by CALIPSO but CALIPSO lidar signals can be attenuated in thick clouds leading to an overestimation of cloud base.

Solar and thermal radiative effects during the 2011 extreme desert dust episode over Portugal

This paper analyses the influence of the extreme Saharan desert dust (DD) event on shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) radiation at the EARLINET/AERONET Évora station (Southern Portugal) from 4 up to 7 April 2011. There was also some cloud occurrence in the period. In this context, it is essential to quantify the effect of cloud presence on aerosol radiative forcing. A radiative transfer model was initialized with aerosol optical properties, cloud vertical properties and meteorological atmospheric vertical profiles. The intercomparison between the instantaneous TOA shortwave and longwave fluxes derived using CERES and those calculated using SBDART, which was fed with aerosol extinction coefficients derived from the CALIPSO and lidar-PAOLI observations, varying OPAC dataset parameters, was reasonably acceptable within the standard deviations. The dust aerosol type that yields the best fit was found to be the mineral accumulation mode. Therefore, SBDART model constrained with the CERES observations can be used to reliably determine aerosol radiative forcing and heating rates. Aerosol radiative forcings and heating rates were derived in the SW (ARFSw, AHRSw) and LW (ARFLw, AHRLw) spectral ranges, considering a cloud-aerosol free reference atmosphere. We found that AOD at 440 nm increased by a factor of 5 on 6 April with respect to the lower dust load on 4 April. It was responsible by a strong cooling radiative effect pointed out by the ARFSw value (−99 W/m2 for a solar zenith angle of 60°) offset by a warming radiative effect according to ARFLw value (+21.9 W/m2) at the surface. Overall, about 24% and 12% of the dust solar radiative cooling effect is compensated by its longwave warming effect at the surface and at the top of the atmosphere, respectively. Hence, larger aerosol loads could enhance the response between the absorption and re-emission processes increasing the ARFLw with respect to those associated with moderate and low aerosol loads. The unprecedented results derived from this work complement the findings in other regions on the modifications of radiative energy budget by the dust aerosols, which could have relevant influences on the regional climate and will be topics for future investigations.

Cloud Fraction of Liquid Water Clouds above Switzerland over the Last 12 Years

Cloud fraction (CF) plays a crucial role in the Earth’s radiative energy budget and thus in the climate. Reliable long-term measurements of CF are rare. The ground-based TROpospheric WAter RAdiometer (TROWARA) at Bern, Switzerland continuously measures integrated liquid water and infrared brightness temperature with a time resolution of 6–11 s since 2004. The view direction of TROWARA is constant (zenith angle 50 ∘ ), and all radiometer channels see the same volume of the atmosphere. TROWARA is sensitive to liquid water clouds while the microwave signal of ice clouds is negligible. By means of the measurement data we derived CF of thin liquid water clouds (1); thick supercooled liquid water clouds (2); thick warm liquid water clouds (3) and all liquid water clouds (4). The article presents the time series and seasonal climatologies of these four classes of CF. CF of thick supercooled liquid water clouds is larger than 15% from November to March. A significant negative trend of − 0 . 29 % ± 0 . 10 %/yr is found for CF of thin liquid water clouds. No trends are found for the other classes (2, 3, 4) since their strong natural variability impedes a significant trend. However, CF of warm liquid water clouds increased by about + 0 . 51 % ± 0 . 27 %/yr from 2004 to 2015. Finally, we performed a Mann-Kendall analysis of seasonal trends which gave several significant trends in the classes 1, 2 and 3.

Ice Fog and Light Snow Measurements Using a High-Resolution Camera System

Ice fog, diamond dust, and light snow usually form over extremely cold weather conditions, and they affect both visibility and Earth’s radiative energy budget. Prediction of these hydrometeors using models is difficult because of limited knowledge of the microphysical properties at the small size ranges due to measurement issues. These phenomena need to be better represented in forecast and climate models; therefore, in addition to remote sensing accurate measurements using ground-based instrumentation are required. An imaging instrument, aimed at measuring ice fog and light snow particles, has been built and is presented here. The ice crystal imaging (ICI) probe samples ice particles into a vertical, tapered inlet with an inlet flow rate of 11 L min−1. A laser beam across the vertical air flow containing the ice crystals allows for their detection by a photodetector collecting the scattered light. Detected particles are then imaged with high optical resolution. An illuminating LED flash and image capturing are triggered by the photodetector. In this work, ICI measurements collected during the fog remote sensing and modeling (FRAM) project, which took place during Winter of 2010–2011 in Yellowknife, NWT, Canada, are summarized and challenges related to measuring small ice particles are described. The majority of ice particles during the 2-month-long campaign had sizes between 300 and 800 μm. During ice fog events the size distribution measured had a lower mode diameter of 300 μm compared to the overall campaign average with mode at 500 μm.

Impact of physics parameterizations on high‐resolution weather prediction over two Chinese megacities

AbstractThe 1 km Institute of Urban Meteorology (IUM) operational model has a high‐temperature bias, especially at night, and a high wind speed bias in urbanized areas, limiting the ability of IUM to provide accurate, high‐resolution prediction of thermal stress and air quality for the densely populated Beijing‐Tianjin metro region. This study provides an assessment of the IUM WRF‐based operational model setups and performs a diagnostic analysis to isolate the contributions of model physics parameterization schemes to operational forecast bias over complex urban regions. Results show that non‐turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) planetary boundary layers (PBL) schemes perform better than their counterpart TKE‐based schemes at night, reducing the warm bias by about 1°C in nonurban areas. However, the best performing urban PBL scheme still produces ~2°C warm bias. Considering aerosol effects in the solar radiation scheme improves downward solar radiation and surface energy budgets but has negligible effect on the simulated temperature. Urban canopy models and the specification of various urban model parameters have comparable or even more significant contributions to forecast biases in temperature and wind speed than PBL schemes. The predicted PBL height using an optimized urban parameter table is lower by about 100–200 m, which is about 50–100% of the interurban scheme effect on the PBL height. Overall, the Building Effect Parameterization urban scheme with the default parameter table, or a parameter table with less urban heat storage, is recommended for the best results in urban areas and shows that most of the urban areas of Beijing and Tianjin have a greater than 4°C improvement in absolute temperature bias and more than 1 m s−1 improvement in absolute wind speed bias.

First order approximation of Broadband Directional Albedo with High Resolution Quickbird Imagery: a case study for arid urban areas

Albedo is a key forcing parameter controlling the planetary radiative energy budget and its partitioning between the surface and the atmosphere. Characterizing and developing high resolution albedo for an urban environment in arid regions is important because of the high urbanization rate in these regions and because of the high land-cover heterogeneity within urban settings. Using a Monte Carlo simulation of a multi-variable regression, we (a) correlate directional solar reflectance (albedo) ground measurements from Phoenix, AZ, with four narrowband reflectance data from QuickBird, and (b) developed a new set of coefficients for converting QuickBird narrowband reflectances to albedo. The albedo models were then applied to a second image over Las Vegas, NV, to assess their feasibility and accuracy. Two wavebands, visible-near infrared (VNIR) and total shortwave albedo, were evaluated for two reflectance models: surface and top-of-atmosphere. Results show that it is possible to accurately estimate directional albedo from high resolution imagery, specifically QuickBird, with the most accurate result from an atmospherically corrected VNIR model. The methodology presented in this paper could thus be applied in other urban areas to obtain a first order estimation of albedo. The new set of coefficients can be applied as first order albedo estimate by researchers, urban planners, developers and city managers interested in the influence of high-resolution albedo on a myriad of urban ecosystem processes.

CALIPSO‐inferred aerosol direct radiative effects: Bias estimates using ground‐based Raman lidars

AbstractObservational constraints on the change in the radiative energy budget caused by the presence of aerosols, i.e., the aerosol direct radiative effect (DRE), have recently been made using observations from the Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite (CALIPSO). CALIPSO observations have the potential to provide improved global estimates of aerosol DRE compared to passive sensor‐derived estimates due to CALIPSO's ability to perform vertically resolved aerosol retrievals over all surface types and over cloud. In this study, uncertainties in CALIPSO‐inferred aerosol DRE are estimated using multiple years of observations from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program's Raman lidars at midlatitude and tropical sites. We find that CALIPSO is unable to detect all radiatively significant aerosol, resulting in an underestimate in the magnitude of the aerosol DRE by 30–50% at the two ARM sites. The undetected aerosol is likely the consequence of random noise in CALIPSO measurements and therefore will affect global observations as well. This suggests that the global aerosol DRE inferred from CALIPSO observations are likely too weak. Also examined is the impact of the ratio of extinction‐to‐backscatter (i.e., the lidar ratio) whose value CALIPSO retrievals must assume to obtain the aerosol extinction profile. It is shown that if CALIPSO can reproduce the climatological value of the lidar ratio at a given location, then the aerosol DRE there can be accurately calculated (within about 3%).

The regime of aerosol asymmetry parameter over Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East based on MODIS satellite data: evaluation against surface AERONET measurements

Abstract. Atmospheric particulates are a significant forcing agent for the radiative energy budget of the Earth–atmosphere system. The particulates' interaction with radiation, which defines their climate effect, is strongly dependent on their optical properties. In the present work, we study one of the most important optical properties of aerosols, the asymmetry parameter (gaer), over sea surfaces of the region comprising North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Europe, and the Mediterranean Basin. These areas are of great interest, because of the variety of aerosol types they host, both anthropogenic and natural. Using satellite data from the collection 051 of MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, Terra and Aqua), we investigate the spatiotemporal characteristics of the asymmetry parameter. We generally find significant spatial variability, with larger values over regions dominated by larger size particles, e.g., outside the Atlantic coasts of northwestern Africa, where desert-dust outflow takes place. The gaer values tend to decrease with increasing wavelength, especially over areas dominated by small particulates. The intra-annual variability is found to be small in desert-dust areas, with maximum values during summer, while in all other areas larger values are reported during the cold season and smaller during the warm. Significant intra-annual and inter-annual variability is observed around the Black Sea. However, the inter-annual trends of gaer are found to be generally small. Although satellite data have the advantage of broad geographical coverage, they have to be validated against reliable surface measurements. Therefore, we compare satellite-measured values with gaer values measured at 69 stations of the global surface AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network), located within our region of interest. This way, we provide some insight on the quality and reliability of MODIS data. We report generally better agreement at the wavelength of 860 nm (correlation coefficient R up to 0.47), while at all wavelengths the results of the comparison were better for spring and summer.

The MODIS (collection V006) BRDF/albedo product MCD43D: Temporal course evaluated over agricultural landscape

The assessment of uncertainties in satellite-derived global surface albedo products is a critical aspect for studying the climate, ecosystem change, hydrology or the Earth's radiant energy budget. However, it is challenged by the spatial scaling errors between satellite and field measurements. This study aims at evaluating the forthcoming MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) (Collection V006) Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)/albedo product MCD43D over a Mediterranean agricultural area. Here, we present the results from the accuracy assessment of the MODIS blue-sky albedo. The analysis is based on collocated comparisons with higher spatial resolution estimates from Formosat-2 that were first evaluated against local in situ measurements. The inter-sensor comparison is achieved by taking into account the effective point spread function (PSF) for MODIS albedo, modeled as Gaussian functions in the North–South and East–West directions. The equivalent PSF is estimated by correlation analysis between MODIS albedo and Formosat-2 convolved albedo. Results show that it is 1.2 to 2.0 times larger in the East–West direction as compared to the North–South direction. We characterized the equivalent PSF by a full width at half maximum size of 1920 m in East–West, 1200 m in North–South. This provided a very good correlation between the products, showing absolute (relative) Root Mean Square Errors from 0.004 to 0.013 (2% to 7%), and almost no bias. By inspecting 1-km plots homogeneous in land cover type, we found poorer performances over rice and marshes (i.e., relative Root Mean Square Error of about 11% and 7%, and accuracy of 0.011 and − 0.008, respectively), and higher accuracy over dry and irrigated pastures, as well as orchards (i.e., relative uncertainty < 3.8% and accuracy < 0.003). The study demonstrates that neglecting the MODIS PSF when comparing the Formosat-2 albedo against the MODIS one induces an additional uncertainty up to 0.02 (10%) in albedo. The consistency between fine and coarse spatial resolution albedo estimates indicates the ability of the daily MCD43D product to reproduce reasonably well the dynamics of albedo.