Articles | Volume 26, issue 15
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-11449-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-11449-2026
Research article
 | 
14 Aug 2026
Research article |  | 14 Aug 2026

Impacts of the three-dimensional radiative effects on cloud droplet number concentration retrieval and regression-based albedo susceptibility estimates

Adeleke S. Ademakinwa, Zhibo Zhang, Daniel Miller, Kerry G. Meyer, Steven Platnick, Zahid H. Tushar, Sanjay Purushotham, and Jianwu Wang

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Influence of cloud retrieval errors due to three-dimensional radiative effects on calculations of broadband shortwave cloud radiative effect
Adeleke S. Ademakinwa, Zahid H. Tushar, Jianyu Zheng, Chenxi Wang, Sanjay Purushotham, Jianwu Wang, Kerry G. Meyer, Tamas Várnai, and Zhibo Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 3093–3114, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3093-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3093-2024, 2024
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Cited articles

Ackerman, A. S., Hobbs, P. V., and Toon, O. B.: A Model for Particle Microphysics, Turbulent Mixing, and Radiative Transfer in the Stratocumulus-Topped Marine Boundary Layer and Comparisons with Measurements, J. Atmos. Sci., 52, 1204–1236, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1995)052<1204:AMFPMT>2.0.CO;2, 1995. 
Ackerman, A. S., Toon, O. B., Taylor, J. P., Johnson, D. W., Hobbs, P. V., and Ferek, R. J.: Effects of Aerosols on Cloud Albedo: Evaluation of Twomey's Parameterization of Cloud Susceptibility Using Measurements of Ship Tracks, J. Atmos. Sci., 57, 2684–2695, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(2000)057<2684:EOAOCA>2.0.CO;2, 2000. 
Ackerman, A. S., Kirkpatrick, M. P., Stevens, D. E., and Toon, O. B.: The impact of humidity above stratiform clouds on indirect aerosol climate forcing, Nature, 432, 1014–1017, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03174, 2004. 
Ademakinwa, A. S., Tushar, Z. H., Zheng, J., Wang, C., Purushotham, S., Wang, J., Meyer, K. G., Várnai, T., and Zhang, Z.: Influence of cloud retrieval errors due to three-dimensional radiative effects on calculations of broadband shortwave cloud radiative effect, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 3093–3114, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3093-2024, 2024. 
Ademakinwa, A. S., Zhang, Z., Miller, D., Meyer, K. G., Platnick, S., Tushar, Z. H., Purushotham, S., and Wang, J.: Dataset for Manuscript: Impacts of the Three-dimensional Radiative Effects on Cloud Droplet Number Concentration Retrieval and Aerosol Cloud Interaction Analysis, Zenodo [data set], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16945606, 2025. 
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Short summary
Many satellites measure cloud properties using reflected light from droplets, but most assume simple cloud structures, which can reduce accuracy. Using cloud simulations, we tested how these errors affect droplet number in a given volume and climate studies. We found that while they strongly affect small-scales, at the larger-scales used by satellites the errors mostly cancel out at low- to moderate-liquid water path (LWP) and cloud optical depth regimes, meaning satellite data remain reliable for climate research.
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