The Vertical Structure of Cloud Occurrence and Radiative Forcing at the SGP ARM Site as Revealed by 8 Years of Continuous Data

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 2591-2610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald G. Mace ◽  
Sally Benson
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Annual Cycle ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Lower Troposphere ◽  
Middle Latitude ◽  
Radiation Budget ◽  
Continuous Data ◽  
Radiative Effect ◽  
Flux Divergence ◽  
Boundary Layer Clouds

Abstract Data collected at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program ground sites allow for the description of the atmospheric thermodynamic state, cloud occurrence, and cloud properties. This information allows for the derivation of estimates of the effects of clouds on the radiation budget of the surface and atmosphere. Herein 8 yr of continuous data collected at the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) Climate Research Facility (ACRF) are analyzed, and the influence of clouds on the radiative flux divergence of solar and infrared energy on annual, seasonal, and monthly time scales is documented. Given the uncertainties in derived cloud microphysical properties that result in calculated radiant flux errors, it is demonstrated that the ability to quantitatively resolve all but the largest heating and cooling influences by clouds is marginal for averaging periods less than 1 month. Concentrating on seasonal and monthly averages, it is found that the net column-integrated radiative effect of clouds on the atmosphere is nearly neutral at this middle-latitude location. However, a net heating of the upper troposphere by upper-tropospheric clouds and a cooling of the lower troposphere by boundary layer clouds is documented. The balance evolves over the course of an annual cycle as the troposphere deepens in summer and boundary layer clouds become less frequent relative to upper-tropospheric clouds. Although the top-of-atmosphere IR radiative effect is nearly invariant through the annual cycle, the seasonally varying heating profile is determined largely by the convergence of IR flux because solar heating is offset by IR cooling within the column.

scholarly journals Reply to: "Tropical cirrus and water vapor: an effective Earth infrared iris feedback?"

2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.-D. Chou ◽  
R. S. Lindzen ◽  
A. Y. Hou
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Optical Properties ◽  
Water Vapor ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Climate Sensitivity ◽  
Physical Meaning ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Boundary Layer Clouds ◽  
High Level

Abstract. In assessing the iris effect suggested by Lindzen et al. (2001), Fu et al. (2002) found that the response of high-level clouds to the sea surface temperature had an effect of reducing the climate sensitivity to external radiative forcing, but the effect was not as strong as LCH found. The approach of FBH to specifying longwave emission and cloud albedos appears to be inappropriate, and the derived cloud optical properties may not have real physical meaning. The cloud albedo calculated by FBH is too large for cirrus clouds and too small for boundary layer clouds, which underestimates the iris effect.

scholarly journals Large-Scale Atmospheric Forcing by Southeast Pacific Boundary Layer Clouds: A Regional Model Study*

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 934-951 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuqing Wang ◽  
Shang-Ping Xie ◽  
Bin Wang ◽  
Haiming Xu
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Inversion Layer ◽  
Regional Model ◽  
Cloud Layer ◽  
Eastern Pacific ◽  
Radiative Effect ◽  
Boundary Layer Clouds ◽  
Southeast Pacific ◽  
Stratocumulus Clouds

Abstract A regional model is used to study the radiative effect of boundary layer clouds over the southeast Pacific on large-scale atmosphere circulation during August–October 1999. With the standard settings, the model simulates reasonably well the large-scale circulation over the eastern Pacific, precipitation in the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) north of the equator, and marine boundary layer stratocumulus clouds to the south. In a sensitivity experiment with the radiative effect of liquid clouds south of the equator over the eastern Pacific artificially removed, boundary layer clouds south of the equator almost disappear and precipitation in the ITCZ is reduced by 15%–20%, indicating that the stratocumulus clouds over the southeast Pacific have both local and cross-equatorial effects. Examination of the differences between the control and sensitivity experiments indicates that clouds exert a net diabatic cooling in the inversion layer. In response to this cloud-induced cooling, an in situ anomalous high pressure system develops in the boundary layer and an anomalous shallow meridional circulation develops in the lower troposphere over the equatorial eastern Pacific. At the lower branch of this shallow circulation, anomalous boundary layer southerlies blow from the boundary layer high toward the northern ITCZ where the air ascends. An anomalous returning flow (northerly) just above the cloud layer closes the shallow circulation. This low-level anomalous shallow circulation enhances the subsidence over the southeast Pacific above the cloud layer, helping to maintain boundary layer clouds and temperature inversion there. Meanwhile, the strengthened cross-equatorial flow near the surface enhances moisture convergence and convection in the ITCZ north of the equator. This in turn strengthens the local, deep Hadley circulation and hence the large-scale subsidence and boundary layer clouds over the southeast Pacific. This positive feedback therefore enhances the interhemispheric climate asymmetry over the tropical eastern Pacific.

scholarly journals Accurate satellite-derived estimates of the tropospheric ozone impact on the global radiation budget

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 5505-5547 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Joiner ◽  
M. R. Schoeberl ◽  
A. P. Vasilkov ◽  
L. Oreopoulos ◽  
S. Platnick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tropospheric Ozone ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Global Radiation ◽  
Anthropogenic Sources ◽  
Radiation Budget ◽  
Radiative Effect ◽  
Ozone Monitoring Instrument ◽  
Cloud Data ◽  
Cloud Effect ◽  
Tropospheric O3

Abstract. Estimates of the radiative forcing due to anthropogenically-produced tropospheric O3 are derived primarily from models. Here, we use tropospheric ozone and cloud data from several instruments in the A-train constellation of satellites as well as information from the GEOS-5 Data Assimilation System to accurately estimate the radiative effect of tropospheric O3 for January and July 2005. Since we cannot distinguish between natural and anthropogenic sources with the satellite data, our derived radiative effect reflects the unadjusted (instantaneous) effect of the total tropospheric O3 rather than the anthropogenic component. We improve upon previous estimates of tropospheric ozone mixing ratios from a residual approach using the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) by incorporating cloud pressure information from OMI. We focus specifically on the magnitude and spatial structure of the cloud effect on both the short- and long-wave radiative budget. The estimates presented here can be used to evaluate the various aspects of model-generated radiative forcing. For example, our derived cloud impact is to reduce the radiative effect of tropospheric ozone by ~16%. This is centered within the published range of model-produced cloud effect on instantaneous radiative forcing.

scholarly journals Statistical Analyses of Satellite Cloud Object Data from CERES. Part V: Relationships between Physical Properties of Marine Boundary Layer Clouds

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (24) ◽  
pp. 6668-6688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary A. Eitzen ◽  
Kuan-Man Xu ◽  
Takmeng Wong
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Physical Properties ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Radiant Energy ◽  
Cloud Fraction ◽  
Cloud Radiative Forcing ◽  
Boundary Layer Clouds ◽  
Shallow Cumulus

Abstract Relationships between physical properties are studied for three types of marine boundary layer cloud objects identified with the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) footprint data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite between 30°S and 30°N. Each cloud object is a contiguous region of CERES footprints that have cloud-top heights below 3 km, and cloud fractions of 99%–100% (overcast type), 40%–99% (stratocumulus type), or 10%–40% (shallow cumulus type). These cloud fractions represent the fraction of ∼2 km × 2 km Visible/Infrared Scanner pixels that are cloudy within each ∼10 km × 10 km footprint. The cloud objects have effective diameters that are greater than 300 km for the overcast and stratocumulus types, and greater than 150 km for the shallow cumulus type. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient is calculated between many microphysical/optical [effective radius (re), cloud optical depth (τ), albedo, liquid water path, and shortwave cloud radiative forcing (SW CRF)] and macrophysical [outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), cloud fraction, cloud-top temperature, longwave cloud radiative forcing (LW CRF), and sea surface temperature (SST)] properties for each of the three cloud object types. When both physical properties are of the same category (microphysical/optical or macrophysical), the magnitude of the correlation tends to be higher than when they are from different categories. The magnitudes of the correlations also change with cloud object type, with the correlations for overcast and stratocumulus cloud objects tending to be higher than those for shallow cumulus cloud objects. Three pairs of physical properties are studied in detail, using a k-means cluster analysis: re and τ, OLR and SST, and LW CRF and SW CRF. The cluster analysis of re and τ reveals that for each of the cloud types, there is a cluster of cloud objects with negative slopes, a cluster with slopes near zero, and two clusters with positive slopes. The joint OLR and SST probability plots show that the OLR tends to decrease with SST in regions with boundary layer clouds for SSTs above approximately 298 K. When the cloud objects are split into “dry” and “moist” clusters based on the amount of precipitable water above 700 hPa, the associated OLRs increase with SST throughout the SST range for the dry clusters, but the OLRs are roughly constant with SST for the moist cluster. An analysis of the joint PDFs of LW CRF and SW CRF reveals that while the magnitudes of both LW and SW CRFs generally increase with cloud fraction, there is a cluster of overcast cloud objects that has low values of LW and SW CRF. These objects are generally located near the Sahara Desert, and may be contaminated with dust. Many of these overcast objects also appear in the re and τ cluster with negative slopes.

scholarly journals Reply to: “Tropical cirrus and water vapor: an effective Earth infrared iris feedback?"

2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.-D. Chou ◽  
R. S. Lindzen ◽  
A. Y. Hou
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Optical Properties ◽  
Water Vapor ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Climate Sensitivity ◽  
Physical Meaning ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Boundary Layer Clouds ◽  
High Level

Abstract. In assessing the iris effect suggested by Lindzen et al. (2001), Fu et al. (2001, 2002) found that the response of high-level clouds to the sea surface temperature had an effect of reducing the climate sensitivity to external radiative forcing, but the effect was not as strong as Lindzen et al. (2001) found. The approach of Fu et al. (2001, 2002) to specifying longwave emission and cloud albedos appears to be inappropriate, and the derived cloud optical properties may not have real physical meaning. The cloud albedo calculated by Fu et al. (2001, 2002) is too large for cirrus clouds and too small for boundary layer clouds, which underestimates the iris effect.

Evaluation of clear sky models to estimate the surface direct aerosol radiative effect over Germany

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Witthuhn ◽  
Anja Hünerbein ◽  
Hartwig Deneke ◽  
Florian Filipitsch ◽  
Stefan Wacker
Keyword(s):  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Climate System ◽  
Radiation Budget ◽  
Radiative Effect ◽  
Clear Sky ◽  
A Value ◽  
Reference Simulation ◽  
One Year ◽  
Aerosol Radiative

<p>The radiation budget of the earth and its climate system is driven by the solar radiation, which interacts with gases, aerosol particles and clouds. Focusing on aerosol, a fundamental measure is the radiative forcing resulting from aerosol-radiation interactions (RFari) which is also known as the aerosol direct radiative effect. Quantifying the surface RFari on regional scales aids the understanding of the role of aerosol in the climate system and is important for the planning of solar energy systems.</p><p>This study is based on a one year dataset (2015) of shortwave broadband global and diffuse horizontal irradiance measured with shaded and unshaded pyranometers at 26 station across Germany within the German Weather Service (DWD) observational network. A variety of clear-sky models are utilized to quantify RFari with a clear sky fitting technique. Clear sky models used are MMAC, MRM v.6.1, METSTAT, ESRA, Heliosat-1, CEM and the simplified Solis model. As these models have not been designed to estimate the clear sky irradiance without the presence of aerosol, we evaluated the accuracy of RFari with an reference simulation.</p><p>The reference RFari is simulated using the TROPOS (Leibniz Institute of Tropospheric Research) Cloud and Aerosol Radiative Simulator (T-CARS) utilizing the offline version of the ECMWF radiation scheme (ecRad) with input data of meteorological state of the atmosphere, trace-gases and aerosol from CAMS reanalysis.</p><p>The clear sky fitting approach for this set of clear sky models agrees well with T-CARS, showing an RMSE of 6.7 Wm<sup>-2</sup> and an correlation of 0.75. The annual mean of surface RFari over the observation stations in Germany shows a value of -13.2 Wm<sup>-2</sup> as an average over all clear sky models, compared to -13.4 Wm<sup>-2</sup> from T-CARS. Out of this set of clear sky models, best performance is shown by the ESRA and MRM v6.1 models. Although, the accuracy of the annual mean RFari from the clear sky fitting approach is strongly depended on the number available clear-sky irradiance measurements and its distribution over the year. Therefore, this approach is not recommended for climatological studies, but may serve as valuable information for e.g. the evaluation of power generation and the influence by aerosol of photo-voltaic power plants.</p>

scholarly journals Accurate satellite-derived estimates of the tropospheric ozone impact on the global radiation budget

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (13) ◽  
pp. 4447-4465 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Joiner ◽  
M. R. Schoeberl ◽  
A. P. Vasilkov ◽  
L. Oreopoulos ◽  
S. Platnick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tropospheric Ozone ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Global Radiation ◽  
Anthropogenic Sources ◽  
Radiation Budget ◽  
Radiative Effect ◽  
Ozone Monitoring Instrument ◽  
Cloud Data ◽  
Cloud Effect ◽  
Tropospheric O3

Abstract. Estimates of the radiative forcing due to anthropogenically-produced tropospheric O3 are derived primarily from models. Here, we use tropospheric ozone and cloud data from several instruments in the A-train constellation of satellites as well as information from the GEOS-5 Data Assimilation System to accurately estimate the radiative effect of tropospheric O3 for January and July 2005. Since we cannot distinguish between natural and anthropogenic sources with the satellite data, our derived radiative effect reflects the unadjusted (instantaneous) effect of the total tropospheric O3 rather than the anthropogenic component. We improve upon previous estimates of tropospheric ozone mixing ratios from a residual approach using the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) by incorporating cloud pressure information from OMI. We focus specifically on the magnitude and spatial structure of the cloud effect on both the short- and long-wave radiative budget. The estimates presented here can be used to evaluate the various aspects of model-generated radiative forcing. For example, our derived cloud impact is to reduce the radiative effect of tropospheric ozone by ~16%. This is centered within the published range of model-produced cloud effect on unadjusted ozone radiative forcing.

Impact of Dry Intrusions on the Marine Boundary Layer

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eyal Ilotoviz ◽  
Shira Raveh-Rubin ◽  
Virendra Ghate
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
Lower Troposphere ◽  
Radiation Budget ◽  
Cold Fronts ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Strong Inversion ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Dry Intrusions

<p>Intrusions of dry air from the upper troposphere were recently suggested to reach the boundary layer and cause its significant deepening. Dry intrusions (DIs) are synoptic-scale slantwise descending airstreams from the midlatitude upper tropospheric jet towards the boundary layer at lower latitudes, thus acting as a circulation type potentially key for understanding boundary-layer cloud occurrence and regime transition. DIs occur mainly during winter over the mid-latitude oceanic storm track regions behind cold fronts trailing from cyclones. These regions are also home to marine boundary clouds that are an important component of the Earth’s radiation budget as they reflect much higher radiation back to the space compared to the ocean surface thereby cooling the Earth’s surface. Although subsidence is generally an inherent feature of the subtropical marine boundary layer, it is unclear how the marine boundary layer reacts to the transient, dynamically distinct DI, differently from the nominal subtropical subsidence resulting from the descending branch of Hadley circulation.</p><p>In this study we use the observations made at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) site (39N, 28W) to characterize the impact of dry intrusions on Marine Boundary Layer (MBL) characteristics such as surface fluxes, thermodynamic stabilities and winds. Our analyses are based on measurements from the campaign: radiosondes, surface station data, polarimetric radar, lidar, radar wind profiler, ceilometer among others. Using all identified DI trajectories during the winters of 2016-2018 based on European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA Interim reanalysis data, we distinguish DI days from those before and following DIs, as well as periods with no DIs at all (with and without the occurrence of cold fronts for comparison). We find that during DI events the well-mixed MBL deepens and its vertical structure changes dramatically. Namely, the lower troposphere cools and dries substantially, inducing strong surface sensible and latent heat fluxes, while a strong inversion builds up at the MBL top, all affecting cloud occurrence. Finally, we used the numerical weather prediction (NWP) model COSMO at 2.2 km horizontal resolution to understand the detailed flows and structure in the MBL during DI events.</p>

scholarly journals Evidence of a Diurnal Cycle in Precipitation over the Southern Ocean as Observed at Macquarie Island

Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 181
Author(s):  
Francisco Lang ◽  
Yi Huang ◽  
Steven T. Siems ◽  
Michael J. Manton
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Lower Troposphere ◽  
Early Morning ◽  
Substantial Contribution ◽  
Stability Parameters ◽  
Macquarie Island ◽  
Boundary Layer Clouds

Due to a lack of observations, relatively large discrepancies exist between precipitation products over the Southern Ocean. In this manuscript, surface hourly precipitation observations from Macquarie Island (54.62 ° S, 158.85 ° E) are analysed (1998–2016) to reveal a diurnal cycle. The precipitation rate is at a maximum during night/early morning and a minimum in the afternoon at Macquarie Island station. Seasonally, the diurnal cycle is strongest in summer and negligible over winter. Such a cycle is consistent with precipitation arising from marine boundary layer clouds, suggesting that such clouds are making a substantial contribution to total precipitation over Macquarie Island and the Southern Ocean. Using twice daily upper air soundings (1995–2011), lower troposphere stability parameters show a stronger inversion at night, again consistent with precipitation arising from marine boundary layer clouds. The ERA-Interim precipitation is dominated by a 12 hourly cycle, year around, which is likely to be a consequence of the twice-daily initialisation. The implication of a diurnal cycle in boundary layer clouds over the Southern Ocean to derived A-Train satellite precipitation products is also discussed.

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