Articles | Volume 16, issue 21
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-13791-2016
© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-13791-2016
© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| 
08 Nov 2016
Research article |
| 08 Nov 2016
The spectral signature of cloud spatial structure in shortwave irradiance
Shi Song
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado,
Boulder, CO, USA
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado,
Boulder, CO, USA
K. Sebastian Schmidt
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado,
Boulder, CO, USA
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado,
Boulder, CO, USA
Peter Pilewskie
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado,
Boulder, CO, USA
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado,
Boulder, CO, USA
Michael D. King
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado,
Boulder, CO, USA
Andrew K. Heidinger
NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research, Madison, WI, USA
Andi Walther
NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research, Madison, WI, USA
Hironobu Iwabuchi
Center for Atmospheric and Oceanic Studies, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
Gala Wind
Space Systems and Applications, INC., Greenbelt, MD, USA
Odele M. Coddington
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado,
Boulder, CO, USA
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Andrew John Buggee and Peter Andrew Pilewskie
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-546, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-546, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT).
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A constrained optimal estimation technique was developed to utilize space-borne hyperspectral measurements of reflected solar radiation for retrieving a vertical profile of cloud droplet size, providing insight into the internal structure of a cloud. The improved accuracy and, to a lesser extent, the enhanced spectral sampling provided by next-generation space-borne spectrometers are essential for extracting vertically resolved droplet size information from moderately thick, warm clouds.
Manfred Wendisch, Susanne Crewell, André Ehrlich, Andreas Herber, Benjamin Kirbus, Christof Lüpkes, Mario Mech, Steven J. Abel, Elisa F. Akansu, Felix Ament, Clémantyne Aubry, Sebastian Becker, Stephan Borrmann, Heiko Bozem, Marlen Brückner, Hans-Christian Clemen, Sandro Dahlke, Georgios Dekoutsidis, Julien Delanoë, Elena De La Torre Castro, Henning Dorff, Regis Dupuy, Oliver Eppers, Florian Ewald, Geet George, Irina V. Gorodetskaya, Sarah Grawe, Silke Groß, Jörg Hartmann, Silvia Henning, Lutz Hirsch, Evelyn Jäkel, Philipp Joppe, Olivier Jourdan, Zsofia Jurányi, Michail Karalis, Mona Kellermann, Marcus Klingebiel, Michael Lonardi, Johannes Lucke, Anna E. Luebke, Maximilian Maahn, Nina Maherndl, Marion Maturilli, Bernhard Mayer, Johanna Mayer, Stephan Mertes, Janosch Michaelis, Michel Michalkov, Guillaume Mioche, Manuel Moser, Hanno Müller, Roel Neggers, Davide Ori, Daria Paul, Fiona M. Paulus, Christian Pilz, Felix Pithan, Mira Pöhlker, Veronika Pörtge, Maximilian Ringel, Nils Risse, Gregory C. Roberts, Sophie Rosenburg, Johannes Röttenbacher, Janna Rückert, Michael Schäfer, Jonas Schaefer, Vera Schemann, Imke Schirmacher, Jörg Schmidt, Sebastian Schmidt, Johannes Schneider, Sabrina Schnitt, Anja Schwarz, Holger Siebert, Harald Sodemann, Tim Sperzel, Gunnar Spreen, Bjorn Stevens, Frank Stratmann, Gunilla Svensson, Christian Tatzelt, Thomas Tuch, Timo Vihma, Christiane Voigt, Lea Volkmer, Andreas Walbröl, Anna Weber, Birgit Wehner, Bruno Wetzel, Martin Wirth, and Tobias Zinner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 8865–8892, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8865-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8865-2024, 2024
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The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the globe. Warm-air intrusions (WAIs) into the Arctic may play an important role in explaining this phenomenon. Cold-air outbreaks (CAOs) out of the Arctic may link the Arctic climate changes to mid-latitude weather. In our article, we describe how to observe air mass transformations during CAOs and WAIs using three research aircraft instrumented with state-of-the-art remote-sensing and in situ measurement devices.
Yu-Wen Chen, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Hong Chen, Steven T. Massie, Susan S. Kulawik, and Hironobu Iwabuchi
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1936, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1936, 2024
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Retrievals of CO2 column-averaged dry air mole fractions from space can be done with spaceborne spectrometers such as OCO-2. Clouds in the vicinity of a footprint lead to spectral perturbations that bias those retrievals well beyond the required accuracy for global assessments of CO2 sources and sinks. This paper presents two physics-based mitigation techniques for these biases based on accompanying imagery, which can be used operationally.
Anja Hünerbein, Sebastian Bley, Hartwig Deneke, Jan Fokke Meirink, Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff, and Andi Walther
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 261–276, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-261-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-261-2024, 2024
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The ESA cloud, aerosol and radiation mission EarthCARE will provide active profiling and passive imaging measurements from a single satellite platform. The passive multi-spectral imager (MSI) will add information in the across-track direction. We present the cloud optical and physical properties algorithm, which combines the visible to infrared MSI channels to determine the cloud top pressure, optical thickness, particle size and water path.
Qian Xiao, Jiaoshi Zhang, Yang Wang, Luke D. Ziemba, Ewan Crosbie, Edward L. Winstead, Claire E. Robinson, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Jeffrey S. Reid, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Armin Sorooshian, Miguel Ricardo A. Hilario, Sarah Woods, Paul Lawson, Snorre A. Stamnes, and Jian Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9853–9871, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9853-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9853-2023, 2023
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Using recent airborne measurements, we show that the influences of anthropogenic emissions, transport, convective clouds, and meteorology lead to new particle formation (NPF) under a variety of conditions and at different altitudes in tropical marine environments. NPF is enhanced by fresh urban emissions in convective outflow but is suppressed in air masses influenced by aged urban emissions where reactive precursors are mostly consumed while particle surface area remains relatively high.
Jake J. Gristey, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Hong Chen, Daniel R. Feldman, Bruce C. Kindel, Joshua Mauss, Mathew van den Heever, Maria Z. Hakuba, and Peter Pilewskie
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3609–3630, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3609-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3609-2023, 2023
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The concept of a satellite-based camera is demonstrated for sampling the angular distribution of outgoing radiance from Earth needed to generate data products for new radiation budget spectral channels.
Anja Hünerbein, Sebastian Bley, Stefan Horn, Hartwig Deneke, and Andi Walther
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2821–2836, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2821-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2821-2023, 2023
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The Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) on board the EarthCARE satellite will provide the information needed for describing the cloud and aerosol properties in the cross-track direction, complementing the measurements from the Cloud Profiling Radar, Atmospheric Lidar and Broad-Band Radiometer. The accurate discrimination between clear and cloudy pixels is an essential first step. Therefore, the cloud mask algorithm provides a cloud flag, cloud phase and cloud type product for the MSI observations.
Steven T. Massie, Heather Cronk, Aronne Merrelli, Sebastian Schmidt, and Steffen Mauceri
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2145–2166, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2145-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2145-2023, 2023
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This paper provides insights into the effects of clouds on Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) measurements of CO2. Calculations are carried out that indicate the extent to which this satellite experiment underestimates CO2, due to these cloud effects, as a function of the distance between the surface observation footprint and the nearest cloud. The paper discusses how to lessen the influence of these cloud effects.
Hong Chen, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Steven T. Massie, Vikas Nataraja, Matthew S. Norgren, Jake J. Gristey, Graham Feingold, Robert E. Holz, and Hironobu Iwabuchi
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1971–2000, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1971-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1971-2023, 2023
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We introduce the Education and Research 3D Radiative Transfer Toolbox (EaR3T) and propose a radiance self-consistency approach for quantifying and mitigating 3D bias in legacy airborne and spaceborne imagery retrievals due to spatially inhomogeneous clouds and surfaces.
Steffen Mauceri, Steven Massie, and Sebastian Schmidt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1461–1476, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1461-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1461-2023, 2023
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The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 makes space-based measurements of reflected sunlight. Using a retrieval algorithm these measurements are converted to CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. However, the converted CO2 concentrations contain errors for observations close to clouds. Using a simple machine learning approach, we developed a model to correct these remaining errors. The model is able to reduce errors over land and ocean by 20 % and 40 %, respectively.
Paul A. Barrett, Steven J. Abel, Hugh Coe, Ian Crawford, Amie Dobracki, James Haywood, Steve Howell, Anthony Jones, Justin Langridge, Greg M. McFarquhar, Graeme J. Nott, Hannah Price, Jens Redemann, Yohei Shinozuka, Kate Szpek, Jonathan W. Taylor, Robert Wood, Huihui Wu, Paquita Zuidema, Stéphane Bauguitte, Ryan Bennett, Keith Bower, Hong Chen, Sabrina Cochrane, Michael Cotterell, Nicholas Davies, David Delene, Connor Flynn, Andrew Freedman, Steffen Freitag, Siddhant Gupta, David Noone, Timothy B. Onasch, James Podolske, Michael R. Poellot, Sebastian Schmidt, Stephen Springston, Arthur J. Sedlacek III, Jamie Trembath, Alan Vance, Maria A. Zawadowicz, and Jianhao Zhang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6329–6371, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6329-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6329-2022, 2022
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To better understand weather and climate, it is vital to go into the field and collect observations. Often measurements take place in isolation, but here we compared data from two aircraft and one ground-based site. This was done in order to understand how well measurements made on one platform compared to those made on another. Whilst this is easy to do in a controlled laboratory setting, it is more challenging in the real world, and so these comparisons are as valuable as they are rare.
Vikas Nataraja, Sebastian Schmidt, Hong Chen, Takanobu Yamaguchi, Jan Kazil, Graham Feingold, Kevin Wolf, and Hironobu Iwabuchi
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 5181–5205, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5181-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5181-2022, 2022
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A convolutional neural network (CNN) is introduced to retrieve cloud optical thickness (COT) from passive cloud imagery. The CNN, trained on large eddy simulations from the Sulu Sea, learns from spatial information at multiple scales to reduce cloud inhomogeneity effects. By considering the spatial context of a pixel, the CNN outperforms the traditional independent pixel approximation (IPA) across several cloud morphology metrics.
Dongwei Fu, Larry Di Girolamo, Robert M. Rauber, Greg M. McFarquhar, Stephen W. Nesbitt, Jesse Loveridge, Yulan Hong, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Brian Cairns, Mikhail D. Alexandrov, Paul Lawson, Sarah Woods, Simone Tanelli, Sebastian Schmidt, Chris Hostetler, and Amy Jo Scarino
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 8259–8285, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8259-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8259-2022, 2022
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Satellite-retrieved cloud microphysics are widely used in climate research because of their central role in water and energy cycles. Here, we provide the first detailed investigation of retrieved cloud drop sizes from in situ and various satellite and airborne remote sensing techniques applied to real cumulus cloud fields. We conclude that the most widely used passive remote sensing method employed in climate research produces high biases of 6–8 µm (60 %–80 %) caused by 3-D radiative effects.
Matthew S. Norgren, John Wood, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Snorre A. Stamnes, Luke D. Ziemba, Ewan C. Crosbie, Michael A. Shook, A. Scott Kittelman, Samuel E. LeBlanc, Stephen Broccardo, Steffen Freitag, and Jeffrey S. Reid
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1373–1394, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1373-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1373-2022, 2022
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A new spectral instrument (SPN-S), with the ability to partition solar radiation into direct and diffuse components, is used in airborne settings to study the optical properties of aerosols and cirrus. It is a low-cost and mechanically simple system but has higher measurement uncertainty than existing standards. This challenge is overcome by utilizing the unique measurement capabilities to develop new retrieval techniques. Validation is done with data from two NASA airborne research campaigns.
Sabrina P. Cochrane, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Hong Chen, Peter Pilewskie, Scott Kittelman, Jens Redemann, Samuel LeBlanc, Kristina Pistone, Michal Segal Rozenhaimer, Meloë Kacenelenbogen, Yohei Shinozuka, Connor Flynn, Rich Ferrare, Sharon Burton, Chris Hostetler, Marc Mallet, and Paquita Zuidema
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 61–77, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-61-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-61-2022, 2022
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This work presents heating rates derived from aircraft observations from the 2016 and 2017 field campaigns of ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS). We separate the total heating rates into aerosol and gas (primarily water vapor) absorption and explore some of the co-variability of heating rate profiles and their primary drivers, leading to the development of a new concept: the heating rate efficiency (HRE; the heating rate per unit aerosol extinction).
Bjorn Stevens, Sandrine Bony, David Farrell, Felix Ament, Alan Blyth, Christopher Fairall, Johannes Karstensen, Patricia K. Quinn, Sabrina Speich, Claudia Acquistapace, Franziska Aemisegger, Anna Lea Albright, Hugo Bellenger, Eberhard Bodenschatz, Kathy-Ann Caesar, Rebecca Chewitt-Lucas, Gijs de Boer, Julien Delanoë, Leif Denby, Florian Ewald, Benjamin Fildier, Marvin Forde, Geet George, Silke Gross, Martin Hagen, Andrea Hausold, Karen J. Heywood, Lutz Hirsch, Marek Jacob, Friedhelm Jansen, Stefan Kinne, Daniel Klocke, Tobias Kölling, Heike Konow, Marie Lothon, Wiebke Mohr, Ann Kristin Naumann, Louise Nuijens, Léa Olivier, Robert Pincus, Mira Pöhlker, Gilles Reverdin, Gregory Roberts, Sabrina Schnitt, Hauke Schulz, A. Pier Siebesma, Claudia Christine Stephan, Peter Sullivan, Ludovic Touzé-Peiffer, Jessica Vial, Raphaela Vogel, Paquita Zuidema, Nicola Alexander, Lyndon Alves, Sophian Arixi, Hamish Asmath, Gholamhossein Bagheri, Katharina Baier, Adriana Bailey, Dariusz Baranowski, Alexandre Baron, Sébastien Barrau, Paul A. Barrett, Frédéric Batier, Andreas Behrendt, Arne Bendinger, Florent Beucher, Sebastien Bigorre, Edmund Blades, Peter Blossey, Olivier Bock, Steven Böing, Pierre Bosser, Denis Bourras, Pascale Bouruet-Aubertot, Keith Bower, Pierre Branellec, Hubert Branger, Michal Brennek, Alan Brewer, Pierre-Etienne Brilouet, Björn Brügmann, Stefan A. Buehler, Elmo Burke, Ralph Burton, Radiance Calmer, Jean-Christophe Canonici, Xavier Carton, Gregory Cato Jr., Jude Andre Charles, Patrick Chazette, Yanxu Chen, Michal T. Chilinski, Thomas Choularton, Patrick Chuang, Shamal Clarke, Hugh Coe, Céline Cornet, Pierre Coutris, Fleur Couvreux, Susanne Crewell, Timothy Cronin, Zhiqiang Cui, Yannis Cuypers, Alton Daley, Gillian M. Damerell, Thibaut Dauhut, Hartwig Deneke, Jean-Philippe Desbios, Steffen Dörner, Sebastian Donner, Vincent Douet, Kyla Drushka, Marina Dütsch, André Ehrlich, Kerry Emanuel, Alexandros Emmanouilidis, Jean-Claude Etienne, Sheryl Etienne-Leblanc, Ghislain Faure, Graham Feingold, Luca Ferrero, Andreas Fix, Cyrille Flamant, Piotr Jacek Flatau, Gregory R. Foltz, Linda Forster, Iulian Furtuna, Alan Gadian, Joseph Galewsky, Martin Gallagher, Peter Gallimore, Cassandra Gaston, Chelle Gentemann, Nicolas Geyskens, Andreas Giez, John Gollop, Isabelle Gouirand, Christophe Gourbeyre, Dörte de Graaf, Geiske E. de Groot, Robert Grosz, Johannes Güttler, Manuel Gutleben, Kashawn Hall, George Harris, Kevin C. Helfer, Dean Henze, Calvert Herbert, Bruna Holanda, Antonio Ibanez-Landeta, Janet Intrieri, Suneil Iyer, Fabrice Julien, Heike Kalesse, Jan Kazil, Alexander Kellman, Abiel T. Kidane, Ulrike Kirchner, Marcus Klingebiel, Mareike Körner, Leslie Ann Kremper, Jan Kretzschmar, Ovid Krüger, Wojciech Kumala, Armin Kurz, Pierre L'Hégaret, Matthieu Labaste, Tom Lachlan-Cope, Arlene Laing, Peter Landschützer, Theresa Lang, Diego Lange, Ingo Lange, Clément Laplace, Gauke Lavik, Rémi Laxenaire, Caroline Le Bihan, Mason Leandro, Nathalie Lefevre, Marius Lena, Donald Lenschow, Qiang Li, Gary Lloyd, Sebastian Los, Niccolò Losi, Oscar Lovell, Christopher Luneau, Przemyslaw Makuch, Szymon Malinowski, Gaston Manta, Eleni Marinou, Nicholas Marsden, Sebastien Masson, Nicolas Maury, Bernhard Mayer, Margarette Mayers-Als, Christophe Mazel, Wayne McGeary, James C. McWilliams, Mario Mech, Melina Mehlmann, Agostino Niyonkuru Meroni, Theresa Mieslinger, Andreas Minikin, Peter Minnett, Gregor Möller, Yanmichel Morfa Avalos, Caroline Muller, Ionela Musat, Anna Napoli, Almuth Neuberger, Christophe Noisel, David Noone, Freja Nordsiek, Jakub L. Nowak, Lothar Oswald, Douglas J. Parker, Carolyn Peck, Renaud Person, Miriam Philippi, Albert Plueddemann, Christopher Pöhlker, Veronika Pörtge, Ulrich Pöschl, Lawrence Pologne, Michał Posyniak, Marc Prange, Estefanía Quiñones Meléndez, Jule Radtke, Karim Ramage, Jens Reimann, Lionel Renault, Klaus Reus, Ashford Reyes, Joachim Ribbe, Maximilian Ringel, Markus Ritschel, Cesar B. Rocha, Nicolas Rochetin, Johannes Röttenbacher, Callum Rollo, Haley Royer, Pauline Sadoulet, Leo Saffin, Sanola Sandiford, Irina Sandu, Michael Schäfer, Vera Schemann, Imke Schirmacher, Oliver Schlenczek, Jerome Schmidt, Marcel Schröder, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, Andrea Sealy, Christoph J. Senff, Ilya Serikov, Samkeyat Shohan, Elizabeth Siddle, Alexander Smirnov, Florian Späth, Branden Spooner, M. Katharina Stolla, Wojciech Szkółka, Simon P. de Szoeke, Stéphane Tarot, Eleni Tetoni, Elizabeth Thompson, Jim Thomson, Lorenzo Tomassini, Julien Totems, Alma Anna Ubele, Leonie Villiger, Jan von Arx, Thomas Wagner, Andi Walther, Ben Webber, Manfred Wendisch, Shanice Whitehall, Anton Wiltshire, Allison A. Wing, Martin Wirth, Jonathan Wiskandt, Kevin Wolf, Ludwig Worbes, Ethan Wright, Volker Wulfmeyer, Shanea Young, Chidong Zhang, Dongxiao Zhang, Florian Ziemen, Tobias Zinner, and Martin Zöger
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 4067–4119, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4067-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4067-2021, 2021
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The EUREC4A field campaign, designed to test hypothesized mechanisms by which clouds respond to warming and benchmark next-generation Earth-system models, is presented. EUREC4A comprised roughly 5 weeks of measurements in the downstream winter trades of the North Atlantic – eastward and southeastward of Barbados. It was the first campaign that attempted to characterize the full range of processes and scales influencing trade wind clouds.
Hong Chen, Sebastian Schmidt, Michael D. King, Galina Wind, Anthony Bucholtz, Elizabeth A. Reid, Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer, William L. Smith, Patrick C. Taylor, Seiji Kato, and Peter Pilewskie
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2673–2697, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2673-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2673-2021, 2021
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In this paper, we accessed the shortwave irradiance derived from MODIS cloud optical properties by using aircraft measurements. We developed a data aggregation technique to parameterize spectral surface albedo by snow fraction in the Arctic. We found that undetected clouds have the most significant impact on the imagery-derived irradiance. This study suggests that passive imagery cloud detection could be improved through a multi-pixel approach that would make it more dependable in the Arctic.
Steven T. Massie, Heather Cronk, Aronne Merrelli, Christopher O'Dell, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Hong Chen, and David Baker
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 1475–1499, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1475-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1475-2021, 2021
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The OCO-2 science team is working to retrieve CO2 measurements that can be used by the carbon cycle community to calculate regional sources and sinks of CO2. The retrieved data, however, are in need of improvements in accuracy. This paper discusses several ways in which 3D cloud metrics (such as the distance of a measurement to the nearest cloud) can be used to account for cloud effects in the OCO-2 CO2 data files.
Jens Redemann, Robert Wood, Paquita Zuidema, Sarah J. Doherty, Bernadette Luna, Samuel E. LeBlanc, Michael S. Diamond, Yohei Shinozuka, Ian Y. Chang, Rei Ueyama, Leonhard Pfister, Ju-Mee Ryoo, Amie N. Dobracki, Arlindo M. da Silva, Karla M. Longo, Meloë S. Kacenelenbogen, Connor J. Flynn, Kristina Pistone, Nichola M. Knox, Stuart J. Piketh, James M. Haywood, Paola Formenti, Marc Mallet, Philip Stier, Andrew S. Ackerman, Susanne E. Bauer, Ann M. Fridlind, Gregory R. Carmichael, Pablo E. Saide, Gonzalo A. Ferrada, Steven G. Howell, Steffen Freitag, Brian Cairns, Brent N. Holben, Kirk D. Knobelspiesse, Simone Tanelli, Tristan S. L'Ecuyer, Andrew M. Dzambo, Ousmane O. Sy, Greg M. McFarquhar, Michael R. Poellot, Siddhant Gupta, Joseph R. O'Brien, Athanasios Nenes, Mary Kacarab, Jenny P. S. Wong, Jennifer D. Small-Griswold, Kenneth L. Thornhill, David Noone, James R. Podolske, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Peter Pilewskie, Hong Chen, Sabrina P. Cochrane, Arthur J. Sedlacek, Timothy J. Lang, Eric Stith, Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer, Richard A. Ferrare, Sharon P. Burton, Chris A. Hostetler, David J. Diner, Felix C. Seidel, Steven E. Platnick, Jeffrey S. Myers, Kerry G. Meyer, Douglas A. Spangenberg, Hal Maring, and Lan Gao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 1507–1563, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1507-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1507-2021, 2021
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Southern Africa produces significant biomass burning emissions whose impacts on regional and global climate are poorly understood. ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) is a 5-year NASA investigation designed to study the key processes that determine these climate impacts. The main purpose of this paper is to familiarize the broader scientific community with the ORACLES project, the dataset it produced, and the most important initial findings.
Sabrina P. Cochrane, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Hong Chen, Peter Pilewskie, Scott Kittelman, Jens Redemann, Samuel LeBlanc, Kristina Pistone, Meloë Kacenelenbogen, Michal Segal Rozenhaimer, Yohei Shinozuka, Connor Flynn, Amie Dobracki, Paquita Zuidema, Steven Howell, Steffen Freitag, and Sarah Doherty
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 567–593, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-567-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-567-2021, 2021
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Based on observations from the 2016 and 2017 field campaigns of ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS), this work establishes an observationally driven link from mid-visible aerosol optical depth (AOD) and other scene parameters to broadband shortwave irradiance (and by extension the direct aerosol radiative effect, DARE). The majority of the case-to-case DARE variability within the ORACLES dataset is attributable to the dependence on AOD and scene albedo.
Yohei Shinozuka, Meloë S. Kacenelenbogen, Sharon P. Burton, Steven G. Howell, Paquita Zuidema, Richard A. Ferrare, Samuel E. LeBlanc, Kristina Pistone, Stephen Broccardo, Jens Redemann, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Sabrina P. Cochrane, Marta Fenn, Steffen Freitag, Amie Dobracki, Michal Segal-Rosenheimer, and Connor J. Flynn
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 11275–11285, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11275-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11275-2020, 2020
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To help satellite retrieval of aerosols and studies of their radiative effects, we demonstrate that daytime aerosol optical depth over low-level clouds is similar to that in neighboring clear skies at the same heights. Based on recent airborne lidar and sun photometer observations above the southeast Atlantic, the mean AOD difference at 532 nm is between 0 and -0.01, when comparing the cloudy and clear sides of cloud edges, with each up to 20 km wide.
Bin Yao, Chao Liu, Yan Yin, Zhiquan Liu, Chunxiang Shi, Hironobu Iwabuchi, and Fuzhong Weng
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 1033–1049, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1033-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1033-2020, 2020
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Due to the complex spatiotemporal and physical properties of clouds, their quantitative depictions in different atmospheric reanalysis datasets are still highly uncertain. A radiance-based evaluation approach is developed to evaluate the quality of cloud properties by directly comparing them with satellite radiance observations. ERA5 and CRA are found to have great capability in representing the cloudy atmosphere over East Asia, and MERRA-2 tends to slightly overestimate clouds over the region.
Sabrina P. Cochrane, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Hong Chen, Peter Pilewskie, Scott Kittelman, Jens Redemann, Samuel LeBlanc, Kristina Pistone, Meloë Kacenelenbogen, Michal Segal Rozenhaimer, Yohei Shinozuka, Connor Flynn, Steven Platnick, Kerry Meyer, Rich Ferrare, Sharon Burton, Chris Hostetler, Steven Howell, Steffen Freitag, Amie Dobracki, and Sarah Doherty
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 6505–6528, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-6505-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-6505-2019, 2019
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For two cases from the NASA ORACLES experiments, we retrieve aerosol and cloud properties and calculate a direct aerosol radiative effect (DARE). We investigate the relationship between DARE and the cloud albedo by specifying the albedo for which DARE transitions from a cooling to warming radiative effect. Our new aerosol retrieval algorithm is successful despite complexities associated with scenes that contain aerosols above clouds and decreases the uncertainty on retrieved aerosol parameters.
Pradeep Khatri, Hironobu Iwabuchi, Tadahiro Hayasaka, Hitoshi Irie, Tamio Takamura, Akihiro Yamazaki, Alessandro Damiani, Husi Letu, and Qin Kai
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 6037–6047, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-6037-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-6037-2019, 2019
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In an attempt to make cloud retrievals from the surface more common and convenient, we developed a cloud retrieval algorithm applicable for sky radiometers. It is based on an optimum method by fitting measured transmittances with modeled values. Further, a cost-effective and easy-to-use calibration procedure is proposed and validated using data obtained from the standard method. A detailed error analysis and quality assessment are also performed.
Steffen Mauceri, Bruce Kindel, Steven Massie, and Peter Pilewskie
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 6017–6036, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-6017-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-6017-2019, 2019
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Aerosols are fine particles that are suspended in Earth’s atmosphere. A better understanding of aerosols is important to lower uncertainties in climate predictions. We propose measuring aerosols from satellites and airplanes equipped with hyperspectral cameras using an artificial neural network, a form of machine learning. We applied our neural network to hyperspectral observations from a recent airplane flight over India and find general agreement with independent aerosol measurements.
Kristina Pistone, Jens Redemann, Sarah Doherty, Paquita Zuidema, Sharon Burton, Brian Cairns, Sabrina Cochrane, Richard Ferrare, Connor Flynn, Steffen Freitag, Steven G. Howell, Meloë Kacenelenbogen, Samuel LeBlanc, Xu Liu, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Arthur J. Sedlacek III, Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer, Yohei Shinozuka, Snorre Stamnes, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Gerard Van Harten, and Feng Xu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 9181–9208, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-9181-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-9181-2019, 2019
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Understanding how smoke particles interact with sunlight is important in calculating their effects on climate, since some smoke is more scattering (cooling) and some is more absorbing (heating). Knowing this proportion is important for both satellite observations and climate models. We measured smoke properties in a recent aircraft-based field campaign off the west coast of Africa and present a comparison of these properties as measured using the six different, independent techniques available.
Marc Mallet, Pierre Nabat, Paquita Zuidema, Jens Redemann, Andrew Mark Sayer, Martin Stengel, Sebastian Schmidt, Sabrina Cochrane, Sharon Burton, Richard Ferrare, Kerry Meyer, Pablo Saide, Hiren Jethva, Omar Torres, Robert Wood, David Saint Martin, Romain Roehrig, Christina Hsu, and Paola Formenti
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 4963–4990, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4963-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4963-2019, 2019
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The model is able to represent LWP but not the LCF. AOD is consistent over the continent but also over ocean (ACAOD). Differences are observed in SSA due to the absence of internal mixing in ALADIN-Climate. A significant regional gradient of the forcing at TOA is observed. An intense positive forcing is simulated over Gabon. Results highlight the significant effect of enhanced moisture on BBA extinction. The surface dimming modifies the energy budget.
Yuekui Yang, Kerry Meyer, Galina Wind, Yaping Zhou, Alexander Marshak, Steven Platnick, Qilong Min, Anthony B. Davis, Joanna Joiner, Alexander Vasilkov, David Duda, and Wenying Su
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 2019–2031, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-2019-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-2019-2019, 2019
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The physical basis of the EPIC cloud product algorithms and an initial evaluation of their performance are presented. EPIC cloud products include cloud mask, effective height, and optical depth. Comparison with co-located retrievals from geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) and low earth orbit (LEO) satellites shows that the algorithms are performing well and are consistent with theoretical expectations. These products are publicly available at the NASA Langley Atmospheric Sciences Data Center.
Elizabeth C. Weatherhead, Jerald Harder, Eduardo A. Araujo-Pradere, Greg Bodeker, Jason M. English, Lawrence E. Flynn, Stacey M. Frith, Jeffrey K. Lazo, Peter Pilewskie, Mark Weber, and Thomas N. Woods
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 15069–15093, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-15069-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-15069-2017, 2017
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Satellite overlap is often carried out as a check on the stability of the data collected. We looked at how length of overlap influences how much information can be derived from the overlap period. Several results surprised us: the confidence we could have in the matchup of two records was independent of the offset, and understanding of the relative drift between the two satellite data sets improved significantly with 2–3 years of overlap. Sudden jumps could easily be confused with drift.
Rintaro Okamura, Hironobu Iwabuchi, and K. Sebastian Schmidt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 4747–4759, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4747-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4747-2017, 2017
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Three-dimensional (3-D) radiative transfer effects are a major source of retrieval errors in satellite-based optical remote sensing of clouds. Multi-pixel, multispectral approaches based on deep learning are proposed for retrieval of cloud optical thickness and droplet effective radius. A feasibility test shows that proposed retrieval methods are effective to obtain accurate cloud properties. Use of the convolutional neural network is effective to reduce 3-D radiative transfer effects.
Souichiro Hioki, Ping Yang, Bryan A. Baum, Steven Platnick, Kerry G. Meyer, Michael D. King, and Jerome Riedi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 7545–7558, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-7545-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-7545-2016, 2016
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The degree of surface roughness of ice particles within thick, cold ice clouds is inferred from multi-directional, multi-spectral satellite polarimetric observations over oceans, assuming a column-aggregate particle habit. An improved roughness inference scheme is employed, which provides a more noise-resilient roughness estimate than the conventional approach. A global one-month data sample shows the use and the limit of a severely roughened ice habit to simulate the polarized reflectivity.
Robert E. Holz, Steven Platnick, Kerry Meyer, Mark Vaughan, Andrew Heidinger, Ping Yang, Gala Wind, Steven Dutcher, Steven Ackerman, Nandana Amarasinghe, Fredrick Nagle, and Chenxi Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 5075–5090, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-5075-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-5075-2016, 2016
M. Saito and H. Iwabuchi
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 4295–4311, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4295-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4295-2015, 2015
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A new algorithm for aerosol retrievals from twilight photographs taken by a digital single reflex-lens camera is developed. A radiative transfer model taking spherical-shell atmosphere, multiple scattering and refraction into account is used as a forward model, and the optimal estimation is used as an inversion calculation to infer the aerosol optical and radiative properties. The AOTs are inferred with small uncertainties and agree very well with that from the skyradiometer.
S. E. LeBlanc, P. Pilewskie, K. S. Schmidt, and O. Coddington
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 1361–1383, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-1361-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-1361-2015, 2015
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Cloud properties are obtained via transmitted light that has interacted with cloud particles throughout its vertical extent. To achieve this, we introduce a new retrieval based on spectrally resolved measurements. We used 15 parameters to quantify spectral features in transmitted light modulated by cloud optical thickness, effective radius, and thermodynamic phase. When applied to ground-based measurements, this method results in a closer match to measured spectra than two other methods.
B. C. Kindel, P. Pilewskie, K. S. Schmidt, T. Thornberry, A. Rollins, and T. Bui
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 1147–1156, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-1147-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-1147-2015, 2015
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Measurements of upper tropospheric-lower stratospheric water vapor amounts in the tropics were made using the 1400 and 1900nm water vapor bands present in airborne solar spectral irradiance data. These were validated with radiative transfer modeling using in situ profiles of water vapor, temperature, and pressure. An approach to extending these types of measurements from aircraft altitudes to the top of the atmosphere to infer stratospheric water vapor amount is outlined.
U. Hamann, A. Walther, B. Baum, R. Bennartz, L. Bugliaro, M. Derrien, P. N. Francis, A. Heidinger, S. Joro, A. Kniffka, H. Le Gléau, M. Lockhoff, H.-J. Lutz, J. F. Meirink, P. Minnis, R. Palikonda, R. Roebeling, A. Thoss, S. Platnick, P. Watts, and G. Wind
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 2839–2867, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2839-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2839-2014, 2014
Y. Kanaya, H. Irie, H. Takashima, H. Iwabuchi, H. Akimoto, K. Sudo, M. Gu, J. Chong, Y. J. Kim, H. Lee, A. Li, F. Si, J. Xu, P.-H. Xie, W.-Q. Liu, A. Dzhola, O. Postylyakov, V. Ivanov, E. Grechko, S. Terpugova, and M. Panchenko
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 7909–7927, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-7909-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-7909-2014, 2014
A. C. Kren, D. R. Marsh, A. K. Smith, and P. Pilewskie
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 4843–4856, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-4843-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-4843-2014, 2014
I. Ermolli, K. Matthes, T. Dudok de Wit, N. A. Krivova, K. Tourpali, M. Weber, Y. C. Unruh, L. Gray, U. Langematz, P. Pilewskie, E. Rozanov, W. Schmutz, A. Shapiro, S. K. Solanki, and T. N. Woods
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 3945–3977, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3945-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3945-2013, 2013
Y. L. Roberts, P. Pilewskie, B. C. Kindel, D. R. Feldman, and W. D. Collins
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 3133–3147, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3133-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3133-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Radiation | Research Activity: Atmospheric Modelling and Data Analysis | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
Modeling actinic flux and photolysis frequencies in dense biomass burning plumes
Regional modeling of surface solar radiation, aerosol, and cloud cover spatial variability and projections over northern France and Benelux
A numerical sensitivity study on the snow-darkening effect by black carbon deposition over the Arctic in spring
Improved calculation of single-scattering properties of frozen droplets and frozen-droplet aggregates observed in deep convective clouds
Influence of cloudy and clear-sky partitions, aerosols, and geometry on the recent variability in surface solar irradiance components in northern France
Saharan dust impact on radiative heating rate errors inherent in reanalysis data in the African easterly wave development region
Combining observations and simulations to investigate the small-scale variability of surface solar irradiance under continental cumulus clouds
The impact of coupled 3D shortwave radiative transfer on surface radiation and cumulus clouds over land
Atmospheric cloud-radiative heating in CMIP6 and observations and its response to surface warming
Mechanisms of surface solar irradiance variability under broken clouds
Trends in observed surface solar radiation and their causes in Brazil in the first 2 decades of the 21st century
A sensitivity study on radiative effects due to the parameterization of dust optical properties in models
Uncertainties in cloud-radiative heating within an idealized extratropical cyclone
Fine and coarse dust radiative impact during an intense Saharan dust outbreak over the Iberian Peninsula. Part I: Short-wave direct radiative effect
Evaluation of downward and upward solar irradiances simulated by the Integrated Forecasting System of ECMWF using airborne observations above Arctic low-level clouds
A colorful look at climate sensitivity
Sensitivity of cirrus and contrail radiative effect on cloud microphysical and environmental parameters
Evaluation of liquid cloud albedo susceptibility in E3SM using coupled eastern North Atlantic surface and satellite retrievals
Constraints on simulated past Arctic amplification and lapse rate feedback from observations
Comparison of methods to estimate aerosol effective radiative forcings in climate models
Montreal Protocol's impact on the ozone layer and climate
Opinion: The scientific and community-building roles of the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP) – past, present, and future
Impacts of reductions in non-methane short-lived climate forcers on future climate extremes and the resulting population exposure risks in eastern and southern Asia
Investigating the radiative effect of Arctic cirrus measured in situ during the winter 2015–2016
Dependence of strategic solar climate intervention on background scenario and model physics
Combining short-range dispersion simulations with fine-scale meteorological ensembles: probabilistic indicators and evaluation during a 85Kr field campaign
Climate consequences of hydrogen emissions
Investigating the impact of Saharan dust aerosols on analyses and forecasts of African easterly waves by constraining aerosol effects in radiance data assimilation
Distinct surface response to black carbon aerosols
Estimating the potential cooling effect of cirrus thinning achieved via the seeding approach
Impacts of multi-layer overlap on contrail radiative forcing
Bias in CMIP6 models as compared to observed regional dimming and brightening
A test of the ability of current bulk optical models to represent the radiative properties of cirrus cloud across the mid- and far-infrared
The incorporation of the Tripleclouds concept into the δ-Eddington two-stream radiation scheme: solver characterization and its application to shallow cumulus clouds
Radiative heating rate profiles over the southeast Atlantic Ocean during the 2016 and 2017 biomass burning seasons
Effective radiative forcing and adjustments in CMIP6 models
Response of surface shortwave cloud radiative effect to greenhouse gases and aerosols and its impact on summer maximum temperature
Combining atmospheric and snow radiative transfer models to assess the solar radiative effects of black carbon in the Arctic
Accurate 3-D radiative transfer simulation of spectral solar irradiance during the total solar eclipse of 21 August 2017
Quantifying the bias of radiative heating rates in numerical weather prediction models for shallow cumulus clouds
The climate effects of increasing ocean albedo: an idealized representation of solar geoengineering
Changes in clouds and thermodynamics under solar geoengineering and implications for required solar reduction
Radiative impact of an extreme Arctic biomass-burning event
Contrails and their impact on shortwave radiation and photovoltaic power production – a regional model study
The influence of internal variability on Earth's energy balance framework and implications for estimating climate sensitivity
Insights into the diurnal cycle of global Earth outgoing radiation using a numerical weather prediction model
Determining the infrared radiative effects of Saharan dust: a radiative transfer modelling study based on vertically resolved measurements at Lampedusa
The early summertime Saharan heat low: sensitivity of the radiation budget and atmospheric heating to water vapour and dust aerosol
The role of 1-D and 3-D radiative heating in the organization of shallow cumulus convection and the formation of cloud streets
Modeling the erythemal surface diffuse irradiance fraction for Badajoz, Spain
Jan-Lukas Tirpitz, Santo Fedele Colosimo, Nathaniel Brockway, Robert Spurr, Matt Christi, Samuel Hall, Kirk Ullmann, Johnathan Hair, Taylor Shingler, Rodney Weber, Jack Dibb, Richard Moore, Elizabeth Wiggins, Vijay Natraj, Nicolas Theys, and Jochen Stutz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1989–2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1989-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1989-2025, 2025
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We combine plume composition data from the 2019 NASA FIREX-AQ campaign with state-of-the-art radiative transfer modeling techniques to calculate distributions of actinic flux and photolysis frequencies in a wildfire plume. Excellent agreement of the model and observations demonstrates the applicability of this approach to constrain photochemistry in such plumes. We identify limiting factors for the modeling accuracy and discuss spatial and spectral features of the distributions.
Gabriel Chesnoiu, Isabelle Chiapello, Nicolas Ferlay, Pierre Nabat, Marc Mallet, and Véronique Riffault
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1307–1331, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1307-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1307-2025, 2025
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The ALADIN regional climate model at 12.5 km resolution allows us to study the evolution of surface solar radiation (SSR) and key associated atmospheric parameters. Over northern France and Benelux, influenced by anthropogenic aerosols and cloudy conditions, regional evaluation of recent hindcast simulations shows satisfying results and high spatial variability. Future SSR evolution by the end of the century for two contrasting CMIP6 scenarios highlights large decreases in SSR for SSP3-7.0.
Zilu Zhang, Libo Zhou, and Meigen Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1–25, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1-2025, 2025
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By integrating the SNICAR model with Polar-WRF, we find that 50 ng g−1 black carbon (BC) deposition decreases snow albedo, increasing radiative forcing (RF) by 1–4 W m−2, especially in Greenland, Baffin Island, and eastern Siberia. The impact is strongly linked to BC mass, with deep snowpacks showing greater sensitivity. Snowmelt and land–atmosphere interactions are crucial. High-resolution modelling is necessary to better understand these effects on Arctic climate change.
Jeonggyu Kim, Sungmin Park, Greg M. McFarquhar, Anthony J. Baran, Joo Wan Cha, Kyoungmi Lee, Seoung Soo Lee, Chang Hoon Jung, Kyo-Sun Sunny Lim, and Junshik Um
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12707–12726, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12707-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12707-2024, 2024
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We developed idealized models to represent the shapes of ice particles found in deep convective clouds and calculated their single-scattering properties. By comparing these results with in situ measurements, we discovered that a mixture of shape models matches in situ measurements more closely than single-form models or aggregate models. This finding has important implications for enhancing the simulation of single-scattering properties of ice crystals in deep convective clouds.
Gabriel Chesnoiu, Nicolas Ferlay, Isabelle Chiapello, Frédérique Auriol, Diane Catalfamo, Mathieu Compiègne, Thierry Elias, and Isabelle Jankowiak
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12375–12407, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12375-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12375-2024, 2024
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The measured ground-based surface solar irradiance variability and its sensitivity to scene parameters are analysed with a filtering of sky conditions at a given site. Its multivariate analysis is applied to observed trends over 2010–2022. The recorded values show, in addition to the dominant effects of cloud occurrence, the variable effects of aerosol and geometry. Clear-sun-with-cloud situations are highlighted by SSI levels close to those of aerosol- and cloud-free situations.
Ruby W. Burgess and Mayra I. Oyola-Merced
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12183–12201, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12183-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12183-2024, 2024
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This study explores how aerosols affect atmospheric heating over African easterly waves (AEWs). Using data from NASA's aircraft and outputs of reanalysis models, the research focuses on days with both Saharan dust and AEWs. Using a radiative transfer model, the study reveals significant differences in heating rates, emphasizing challenges in accurately representing aerosol effects in the atmosphere and underscoring the need for improved aerosol representation in weather models.
Zili He, Quentin Libois, Najda Villefranque, Hartwig Deneke, Jonas Witthuhn, and Fleur Couvreux
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 11391–11408, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11391-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11391-2024, 2024
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This study uses observations and simulations to analyze how cumulus clouds affect spacial solar radiation variability on the ground. Results show that the simulations reproduce the observations well and improve understanding of cloud impacts on radiation. The research also indicates that a few strategically placed sensors, capitalizing on measurement timing, can effectively measure these variations, aiding in the development of detailed weather prediction models.
Mirjam Tijhuis, Bart J. H. van Stratum, and Chiel C. van Heerwaarden
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10567–10582, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10567-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10567-2024, 2024
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Radiative transfer in the atmosphere is a 3D processes, which is often modelled in 1D for computational efficiency. We studied the differences between using 1D and 3D radiative transfer. With 3D radiation, larger clouds that contain more liquid water develop. However, they cover roughly the same part of the sky, and the average total radiation at the surface is nearly unchanged. The increase in cloud size might be important for weather models, as it can impact the formation of rain, for example.
Aiko Voigt, Stefanie North, Blaž Gasparini, and Seung-Hee Ham
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 9749–9775, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9749-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9749-2024, 2024
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Clouds shape weather and climate by interacting with photons, which changes temperatures within the atmosphere. We assess how well CMIP6 climate models capture this radiative heating by clouds within the atmosphere. While we find large differences among models, especially in cold regions of the atmosphere with abundant ice clouds, we also demonstrate that physical understanding allows us to predict the response of clouds and their radiative heating near the tropopause to climate change.
Wouter Mol and Chiel van Heerwaarden
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2396, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2396, 2024
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Sunlight varies often and quickly under broken cloud cover, and every cloud field creates a unique pattern of sunlight on the surface below. These variations affect many processes in the Earth system, from photosynthesis and chemistry, to cloud formation itself. The exact way in which cloud particles interact with sunlight is complex and expensive to calculate. We demonstrate a simplified framework which explains how sunlight changes for potentially any cloud field.
Lucas Ferreira Correa, Doris Folini, Boriana Chtirkova, and Martin Wild
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 8797–8819, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8797-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8797-2024, 2024
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We investigated the causes of the decadal trends of solar radiation measured at 34 stations in Brazil in the first 2 decades of the 21st century. We observed strong negative trends in north and northeast Brazil associated with changes in both atmospheric absorption (anthropogenic) and cloud cover (natural). In other parts of the country no strong trends were observed as a result of competing effects. This provides a better understanding of the energy balance in the region.
Ilias Fountoulakis, Alexandra Tsekeri, Stelios Kazadzis, Vassilis Amiridis, Angelos Nersesian, Maria Tsichla, Emmanouil Proestakis, Antonis Gkikas, Kyriakoula Papachristopoulou, Vasileios Barlakas, Claudia Emde, and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4915–4948, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4915-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4915-2024, 2024
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In our study we provide an assessment, through a sensitivity study, of the limitations of models to calculate the dust direct radiative effect (DRE) due to the underrepresentation of its size, refractive index (RI), and shape. Our results indicate the necessity of including more realistic sizes and RIs for dust particles in dust models, in order to derive better estimations of the dust direct radiative effects.
Behrooz Keshtgar, Aiko Voigt, Bernhard Mayer, and Corinna Hoose
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4751–4769, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4751-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4751-2024, 2024
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Cloud-radiative heating (CRH) affects extratropical cyclones but is uncertain in weather and climate models. We provide a framework to quantify uncertainties in CRH within an extratropical cyclone due to four factors and show that the parameterization of ice optical properties contributes significantly to uncertainty in CRH. We also argue that ice optical properties, by affecting CRH on spatial scales of 100 km, are relevant for the large-scale dynamics of extratropical cyclones.
María-Ángeles López-Cayuela, Carmen Córdoba-Jabonero, Michaël Sicard, Jesús Abril-Gago, Vanda Salgueiro, Adolfo Comerón, María José Granados-Muñoz, Maria João Costa, Constantino Muñoz-Porcar, Juan Antonio Bravo-Aranda, Daniele Bortoli, Alejandro Rodríguez-Gómez, Lucas Alados-Arboledas, and Juan Luis Guerrero-Rascado
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-422, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-422, 2024
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Due to the significant radiative role of dust in Climate Change, a vertical assessment of the short-wave dust direct radiative effect of both fine and coarse dust particles, separately, is performed. The study is focused on an intense Saharan dust outbreak crossing the Iberian Peninsula in springtime as monitored by five Iberian lidar stations with SW-centre-NE coverage. A comparative study to evaluate the differences found by considering the total dust (no separation) is also examined.
Hanno Müller, André Ehrlich, Evelyn Jäkel, Johannes Röttenbacher, Benjamin Kirbus, Michael Schäfer, Robin J. Hogan, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4157–4175, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4157-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4157-2024, 2024
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A weather model is used to compare solar radiation with measurements from an aircraft campaign in the Arctic. Model and observations agree on the downward radiation but show differences in the radiation reflected by the surface and the clouds, which in the model is too low above sea ice and too high above open ocean. The model–observation bias is reduced above open ocean by a realistic fraction of clouds and less cloud liquid water and above sea ice by less dark sea ice and more cloud droplets.
Bjorn Stevens and Lukas Kluft
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 14673–14689, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14673-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14673-2023, 2023
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A simple model is introduced to account for the spectral diversity of radiant energy transfer. It provides an improved basis for assessing the different ways in which clouds influence Earth’s climate sensitivity, demonstrating how many cloud effects depend on the existing cloud climatology. Given existing assessments of changes in cloud albedo with warming, it is determined that clouds reduce Earth's climate sensitivity as compared to what it would be in a counterfactual world without clouds.
Kevin Wolf, Nicolas Bellouin, and Olivier Boucher
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 14003–14037, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14003-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14003-2023, 2023
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Cirrus and contrails considerably impact Earth's energy budget. Such ice clouds can have a positive (warming) or negative (cooling) net radiative effect (RE), which depends on cloud and ambient properties. The effect of eight parameters on the cloud RE is estimated. In total, 283 500 radiative transfer simulations have been performed, spanning the typical parameter ranges associated with cirrus and contrails. Specific cases are selected and discussed. The data set is publicly available.
Adam C. Varble, Po-Lun Ma, Matthew W. Christensen, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Shuaiqi Tang, and Jerome Fast
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 13523–13553, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13523-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13523-2023, 2023
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We evaluate how clouds change in response to changing atmospheric particle (aerosol) concentrations in a climate model and find that the model-predicted cloud brightness increases too much as aerosols increase because the cloud drop number increases too much. Excessive drizzle in the model mutes this difference. Many differences between observational and model estimates are explained by varying assumptions of how much liquid has been lost in clouds, which impacts the estimated cloud drop number.
Olivia Linke, Johannes Quaas, Finja Baumer, Sebastian Becker, Jan Chylik, Sandro Dahlke, André Ehrlich, Dörthe Handorf, Christoph Jacobi, Heike Kalesse-Los, Luca Lelli, Sina Mehrdad, Roel A. J. Neggers, Johannes Riebold, Pablo Saavedra Garfias, Niklas Schnierstein, Matthew D. Shupe, Chris Smith, Gunnar Spreen, Baptiste Verneuil, Kameswara S. Vinjamuri, Marco Vountas, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9963–9992, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9963-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9963-2023, 2023
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Lapse rate feedback (LRF) is a major driver of the Arctic amplification (AA) of climate change. It arises because the warming is stronger at the surface than aloft. Several processes can affect the LRF in the Arctic, such as the omnipresent temperature inversion. Here, we compare multimodel climate simulations to Arctic-based observations from a large research consortium to broaden our understanding of these processes, find synergy among them, and constrain the Arctic LRF and AA.
Mark D. Zelinka, Christopher J. Smith, Yi Qin, and Karl E. Taylor
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8879–8898, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8879-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8879-2023, 2023
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The primary uncertainty in how strongly Earth's climate has been perturbed by human activities comes from the unknown radiative impact of aerosol changes. Accurately quantifying these forcings – and their sub-components – in climate models is crucial for understanding the past and future simulated climate. In this study we describe biases in previously published estimates of aerosol radiative forcing in climate models and provide corrected estimates along with code for users to compute them.
Tatiana Egorova, Jan Sedlacek, Timofei Sukhodolov, Arseniy Karagodin-Doyennel, Franziska Zilker, and Eugene Rozanov
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 5135–5147, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5135-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5135-2023, 2023
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This paper describes the climate and atmosphere benefits of the Montreal Protocol, simulated with the state-of-the-art Earth system model SOCOLv4.0. We have added to and confirmed the previous studies by showing that without the Montreal Protocol by the end of the 21st century there would be a dramatic reduction in the ozone layer as well as substantial perturbation of the essential climate variables in the troposphere caused by the warming from increasing ozone-depleting substances.
Daniele Visioni, Ben Kravitz, Alan Robock, Simone Tilmes, Jim Haywood, Olivier Boucher, Mark Lawrence, Peter Irvine, Ulrike Niemeier, Lili Xia, Gabriel Chiodo, Chris Lennard, Shingo Watanabe, John C. Moore, and Helene Muri
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 5149–5176, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5149-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5149-2023, 2023
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Geoengineering indicates methods aiming to reduce the temperature of the planet by means of reflecting back a part of the incoming radiation before it reaches the surface or allowing more of the planetary radiation to escape into space. It aims to produce modelling experiments that are easy to reproduce and compare with different climate models, in order to understand the potential impacts of these techniques. Here we assess its past successes and failures and talk about its future.
Yingfang Li, Zhili Wang, Yadong Lei, Huizheng Che, and Xiaoye Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 2499–2523, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2499-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2499-2023, 2023
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Since few studies have assessed the impacts of future combined reductions in aerosols, ozone, and their precursors on future climate change, we use models with an interactive representation of tropospheric aerosols and atmospheric chemistry schemes to quantify the impact of their reductions on the Asian climate. Our results suggest that their reductions will exacerbate the warming effect caused by greenhouse gases, increasing future climate extremes and associated population exposure risk.
Andreas Marsing, Ralf Meerkötter, Romy Heller, Stefan Kaufmann, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Martina Krämer, Christian Rolf, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 587–609, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-587-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-587-2023, 2023
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We employ highly resolved aircraft measurements of profiles of the ice water content (IWC) in Arctic cirrus clouds in winter and spring, when solar irradiation is low. Using radiation transfer calculations, we assess the cloud radiative effect over different surfaces like snow or ocean. The variability in the IWC of the clouds affects their overall radiative effect and drives internal processes. This helps understand the role of cirrus in a rapidly changing Arctic environment.
John T. Fasullo and Jadwiga H. Richter
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 163–182, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-163-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-163-2023, 2023
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The continued high levels of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions increase the likelihood that key climate warming thresholds will be exceeded in the coming decades. Here we examine a recently proposed geoengineering approach using two recently produced climate model experiments. We find the associated latitudinal distribution of aerosol mass to exhibit substantial uncertainty, suggesting the need for significant flexibility in the location and amount of aerosol delivery, if implemented.
Youness El-Ouartassy, Irène Korsakissok, Matthieu Plu, Olivier Connan, Laurent Descamps, and Laure Raynaud
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 15793–15816, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15793-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15793-2022, 2022
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This work investigates the potential value of using fine-scale meteorological ensembles to represent the inherent meteorological uncertainties in atmospheric dispersion model outputs. Probabilistic scores were used to evaluate the probabilistic performance of dispersion ensembles, using an original dataset of new continuous 85Kr air concentration measurements and a well-known source term. The results show that the ensemble dispersion simulations perform better than deterministic ones.
Ilissa B. Ocko and Steven P. Hamburg
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9349–9368, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9349-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9349-2022, 2022
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Hydrogen is considered a key strategy to decarbonize the global economy. However, hydrogen is also a short-lived indirect greenhouse gas that can easily leak into the atmosphere. Given that the climate impacts from hydrogen emissions are not well understood, especially in the near term, we assess impacts over all timescales for plausible emissions rates. We find that hydrogen leakage can cause more warming than widely perceived; thus, attention is needed to minimize emissions.
Dustin Francis Phillip Grogan, Cheng-Hsuan Lu, Shih-Wei Wei, and Sheng-Po Chen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2385–2398, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2385-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2385-2022, 2022
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This study shows that incorporating aerosols into satellite radiance calculations affects the representation of African easterly waves (AEWs), and their environment, over North Africa and the eastern Atlantic in a numerical weather model. These changes are driven by radiative effects of Saharan dust captured by the aerosol-affected radiances, which modify the initial fields and can improve the forecasting of AEWs.
Tao Tang, Drew Shindell, Yuqiang Zhang, Apostolos Voulgarakis, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Gunnar Myhre, Gregory Faluvegi, Bjørn H. Samset, Timothy Andrews, Dirk Olivié, Toshihiko Takemura, and Xuhui Lee
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13797–13809, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13797-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13797-2021, 2021
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Previous studies showed that black carbon (BC) could warm the surface with decreased incoming radiation. With climate models, we found that the surface energy redistribution plays a more crucial role in surface temperature compared with other forcing agents. Though BC could reduce the surface heating, the energy dissipates less efficiently, which is manifested by reduced convective and evaporative cooling, thereby warming the surface.
Jiaojiao Liu and Xiangjun Shi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 10609–10624, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10609-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10609-2021, 2021
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Cirrus thinning, which reduces the warming effect of cirrus clouds, has been investigated as a new geoengineering approach. In this study, a flexible seeding method is used to exploit the potential cooling effect of cirrus thinning. Simulation results show that the seeding method is essential for estimating the cooling effect. Cirrus thinning with the flexible seeding method could produce a considerable cooling effect, which is much stronger than the fixed seeding method.
Inés Sanz-Morère, Sebastian D. Eastham, Florian Allroggen, Raymond L. Speth, and Steven R. H. Barrett
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 1649–1681, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1649-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1649-2021, 2021
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Contrails cause ~50 % of aviation climate impacts, but this is highly uncertain. This is partly due to the effect of overlap between contrails and other cloud layers. We developed a model to quantify this effect, finding that overlap with natural clouds increased contrails' radiative forcing in 2015. This suggests that cloud avoidance may help in reducing aviation's climate impacts. We also find that contrail–contrail overlap reduces impacts by ~3 %, increasing non-linearly with optical depth.
Kine Onsum Moseid, Michael Schulz, Trude Storelvmo, Ingeborg Rian Julsrud, Dirk Olivié, Pierre Nabat, Martin Wild, Jason N. S. Cole, Toshihiko Takemura, Naga Oshima, Susanne E. Bauer, and Guillaume Gastineau
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 16023–16040, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-16023-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-16023-2020, 2020
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In this study we compare solar radiation at the surface from observations and Earth system models from 1961 to 2014. We find that the models do not reproduce the so-called
global dimmingas found in observations. Only model experiments with anthropogenic aerosol emissions display any dimming at all. The discrepancies between observations and models are largest in China, which we suggest is in part due to erroneous aerosol precursor emission inventories in the emission dataset used for CMIP6.
Richard J. Bantges, Helen E. Brindley, Jonathan E. Murray, Alan E. Last, Jacqueline E. Russell, Cathryn Fox, Stuart Fox, Chawn Harlow, Sebastian J. O'Shea, Keith N. Bower, Bryan A. Baum, Ping Yang, Hilke Oetjen, and Juliet C. Pickering
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12889–12903, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12889-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12889-2020, 2020
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Understanding how ice clouds influence the Earth's energy balance remains a key challenge for predicting the future climate. These clouds are ubiquitous and are composed of ice crystals that have complex shapes that are incredibly difficult to model. This work exploits new measurements of the Earth's emitted thermal energy made from instruments flown on board an aircraft to test how well the latest ice cloud models can represent these clouds. Results indicate further developments are required.
Nina Črnivec and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 10733–10755, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10733-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10733-2020, 2020
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Unresolved interaction between clouds and atmospheric radiation is a source of uncertainty in weather and climate models. The present study highlights the potential of the state-of-the-art Tripleclouds radiative solver for shallow cumulus clouds, exposing the significance of properly representing subgrid cloud horizontal heterogeneity. The Tripleclouds concept was thereby incorporated in the widely employed δ-Eddington two-stream radiation scheme within the comprehensive libRadtran library.
Allison B. Marquardt Collow, Mark A. Miller, Lynne C. Trabachino, Michael P. Jensen, and Meng Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 10073–10090, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10073-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10073-2020, 2020
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Uncertainties in marine boundary layer clouds arise in the presence of biomass burning aerosol, as is the case over the southeast Atlantic Ocean. Heating due to this aerosol has the potential to alter the thermodynamic profile as the aerosol is transported across the Atlantic Ocean. Radiation transfer experiments indicate local shortwave aerosol heating is ~2–8 K d−1; however uncertainties in this quantity exist due to the single-scattering albedo and back trajectories of the aerosol plume.
Christopher J. Smith, Ryan J. Kramer, Gunnar Myhre, Kari Alterskjær, William Collins, Adriana Sima, Olivier Boucher, Jean-Louis Dufresne, Pierre Nabat, Martine Michou, Seiji Yukimoto, Jason Cole, David Paynter, Hideo Shiogama, Fiona M. O'Connor, Eddy Robertson, Andy Wiltshire, Timothy Andrews, Cécile Hannay, Ron Miller, Larissa Nazarenko, Alf Kirkevåg, Dirk Olivié, Stephanie Fiedler, Anna Lewinschal, Chloe Mackallah, Martin Dix, Robert Pincus, and Piers M. Forster
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 9591–9618, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9591-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9591-2020, 2020
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The spread in effective radiative forcing for both CO2 and aerosols is narrower in the latest CMIP6 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project) generation than in CMIP5. For the case of CO2 it is likely that model radiation parameterisations have improved. Tropospheric and stratospheric radiative adjustments to the forcing behave differently for different forcing agents, and there is still significant diversity in how clouds respond to forcings, particularly for total anthropogenic forcing.
Tao Tang, Drew Shindell, Yuqiang Zhang, Apostolos Voulgarakis, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Gunnar Myhre, Camilla W. Stjern, Gregory Faluvegi, and Bjørn H. Samset
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 8251–8266, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8251-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8251-2020, 2020
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By using climate simulations, we found that both CO2 and black carbon aerosols could reduce low-level cloud cover, which is mainly due to changes in relative humidity, cloud water, dynamics, and stability. Because the impact of cloud on solar radiation is in effect only during daytime, such cloud reduction could enhance solar heating, thereby raising the daily maximum temperature by 10–50 %, varying by region, which has great implications for extreme climate events and socioeconomic activity.
Tobias Donth, Evelyn Jäkel, André Ehrlich, Bernd Heinold, Jacob Schacht, Andreas Herber, Marco Zanatta, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 8139–8156, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8139-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8139-2020, 2020
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Solar radiative effects of Arctic black carbon (BC) particles (suspended in the atmosphere and in the surface snowpack) were quantified under cloudless and cloudy conditions. An atmospheric and a snow radiative transfer model were coupled to account for radiative interactions between both compartments. It was found that (i) the warming effect of BC in the snowpack overcompensates for the atmospheric BC cooling effect, and (ii) clouds tend to reduce the atmospheric BC cooling and snow BC warming.
Paul Ockenfuß, Claudia Emde, Bernhard Mayer, and Germar Bernhard
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 1961–1976, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1961-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1961-2020, 2020
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We model solar radiation as it would be measured on the Earth's surface in the core shadow of a total solar eclipse. Subsequently, we compare our results to observations during the total eclipse 2017 for ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared wavelengths. Moreover, we analyze the effect of the surface reflectance, the ozone profile, aerosol and the topography and give a visualization of the prevailing photons paths in the atmosphere during the eclipse.
Nina Črnivec and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 8083–8100, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8083-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8083-2019, 2019
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The interaction between radiation and clouds represents a source of uncertainty in numerical weather prediction (NWP), due to both intrinsic problems of one-dimensional radiation schemes and poor representation of clouds. The underlying question addressed in this study is how large the bias is of radiative heating rates in NWP models for shallow cumulus clouds and how it scales with various parameters, such as solar zenith angle, surface albedo, cloud cover and liquid water path.
Ben Kravitz, Philip J. Rasch, Hailong Wang, Alan Robock, Corey Gabriel, Olivier Boucher, Jason N. S. Cole, Jim Haywood, Duoying Ji, Andy Jones, Andrew Lenton, John C. Moore, Helene Muri, Ulrike Niemeier, Steven Phipps, Hauke Schmidt, Shingo Watanabe, Shuting Yang, and Jin-Ho Yoon
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 13097–13113, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-13097-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-13097-2018, 2018
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Marine cloud brightening has been proposed as a means of geoengineering/climate intervention, or deliberately altering the climate system to offset anthropogenic climate change. In idealized simulations that highlight contrasts between land and ocean, we find that the globe warms, including the ocean due to transport of heat from land. This study reinforces that no net energy input into the Earth system does not mean that temperature will necessarily remain unchanged.
Rick D. Russotto and Thomas P. Ackerman
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 11905–11925, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-11905-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-11905-2018, 2018
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In simulations with different climate models in which the strength of the Sun is reduced to cancel the surface warming from a quadrupling of atmospheric carbon dioxide, low cloud cover decreases, high cloud cover increases, the upper troposphere and stratosphere cool, and water vapor concentration decreases. The stratospheric cooling and low cloud reduction result in more sunlight reduction being needed than originally thought.
Justyna Lisok, Anna Rozwadowska, Jesper G. Pedersen, Krzysztof M. Markowicz, Christoph Ritter, Jacek W. Kaminski, Joanna Struzewska, Mauro Mazzola, Roberto Udisti, Silvia Becagli, and Izabela Gorecka
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 8829–8848, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8829-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8829-2018, 2018
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The aim of the presented study was to investigate the impact on the radiation budget and atmospheric dynamics of a biomass-burning plume, transported from Alaska to the High Arctic region of Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, in early July 2015. We found that the smoke plume may significantly alter radiative properties of the atmosphere. Furthermore, the simulations of atmospheric dynamics indicated a vertical positive displacement and broadening of the plume with time.
Simon Gruber, Simon Unterstrasser, Jan Bechtold, Heike Vogel, Martin Jung, Henry Pak, and Bernhard Vogel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 6393–6411, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6393-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6393-2018, 2018
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A numerical model also used for operational weather forecast was applied to investigate the impact of contrails and contrail cirrus on the radiative fluxes at the earth's surface. Accounting for contrails produced by aircraft enables the model to simulate high clouds that are otherwise missing. In a case study, we find that the effect of these extra clouds is to reduce the incoming shortwave radiation at the surface as well as the production of photovoltaic power by up to 10 %.
Andrew E. Dessler, Thorsten Mauritsen, and Bjorn Stevens
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 5147–5155, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5147-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5147-2018, 2018
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One of the most important parameters in climate science is the equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS). Estimates of this quantity based on 20th-century observations suggest low values of ECS (below 2 °C). We show that these calculations may be significantly in error. Together with other recent work on this problem, it seems probable that the ECS is larger than suggested by the 20th-century observations.
Jake J. Gristey, J. Christine Chiu, Robert J. Gurney, Cyril J. Morcrette, Peter G. Hill, Jacqueline E. Russell, and Helen E. Brindley
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 5129–5145, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5129-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5129-2018, 2018
Daniela Meloni, Alcide di Sarra, Gérard Brogniez, Cyrielle Denjean, Lorenzo De Silvestri, Tatiana Di Iorio, Paola Formenti, José L. Gómez-Amo, Julian Gröbner, Natalia Kouremeti, Giuliano Liuzzi, Marc Mallet, Giandomenico Pace, and Damiano M. Sferlazzo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 4377–4401, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-4377-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-4377-2018, 2018
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This study examines how different aerosol optical properties determine the dust longwave radiative effects at the surface, in the atmosphere and at the top of the atmosphere, based on the combination of remote sensing and in situ observations from the ground, from airborne sensors, and from space, by means of radiative transfer modelling. The closure experiment is based on longwave irradiances and spectral brightness temperatures measured during the 2013 ChArMEx–ADRIMED campaign at Lampedusa.
Netsanet K. Alamirew, Martin C. Todd, Claire L. Ryder, John H. Marsham, and Yi Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 1241–1262, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-1241-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-1241-2018, 2018
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This paper quantifies the radiative effects of dust and water vapour in the Saharan heat low. Dust has a warming effect at the top of the atmosphere while cooling the surface. Water vapour has a warming effect both at the top of atmosphere and the surface. We find dust and water vapour have similar effects in driving the variability in the top-of-atmosphere radiative budget, while dust has a stronger effect than water vapour in controlling day-to-day variability of the surface radiative budget.
Fabian Jakub and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 13317–13327, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-13317-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-13317-2017, 2017
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The formation of shallow cumulus cloud streets was historically attributed primarily to dynamics. Here, we focus on the interaction between radiatively induced surface heterogeneities and the resulting patterns in the flow. Our results suggest that solar radiative heating has the potential to organize clouds perpendicular to the sun's incidence angle.
Guadalupe Sanchez, Antonio Serrano, and María Luisa Cancillo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 12697–12708, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12697-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12697-2017, 2017
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This study proposes models to estimate the UVER diffuse irradiance, which means, at least, 40 % of the ultraviolet solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface at mid-latitudes. These models are inspired by expressions originally used to estimate total diffuse fraction and rely on variables commonly available to favor their applicability. The best model in this paper performs better than previous approaches and no additional information about the cloud or aerosol layer is needed.
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Short summary
The radiative effects of spatially complex cloud fields are notoriously difficult to estimate and are afflicted with errors up to ±50 % of the incident solar radiation. We find that horizontal photon transport, the leading cause for these three-dimensional effects, manifests itself through a spectral fingerprint – a new observable that holds promise for reducing the errors associated with spatial complexity by moving the problem to the spectral dimension.
The radiative effects of spatially complex cloud fields are notoriously difficult to estimate...
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