Reconstructing albedo from mean cloud properties

Wojciechowska, Izabela; Gryspeerdt, Edward

doi:10.5194/acp-26-4571-2026

Articles | Volume 26, issue 7

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-4571-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-4571-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 26, issue 7

Research article

|

07 Apr 2026

Research article |

| 07 Apr 2026

Reconstructing albedo from mean cloud properties

Izabela Wojciechowska and Edward Gryspeerdt

Data sets

MODIS Atmosphere L3 Daily Product S. Platnick et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD08_D3.061

MODIS Atmosphere L3 Daily Product S. Platnick et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MYD08_D3.061

CERES Time-Interpolated TOA Fluxes, Clouds and Aerosols Daily Aqua Edition4A NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/AQUA/CERES/SSF1DEGDAY_L3.004A

CERES Time-Interpolated TOA Fluxes, Clouds and Aerosols Daily Terra Edition4A NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/TERRA/CERES/SSF1DEGDAY_L3.004

Cloud droplet number concentration, calculated from the MODIS (Moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer) cloud optical properties retrieval and gridded using different sampling strategies Edward Gryspeerdt et al. https://doi.org/10.5285/864a46cc65054008857ee5bb772a2a2b

Short summary

Marine clouds play a major role in cooling the Earth by reflecting sunlight, but predicting how bright they appear is not straightforward. We used satellite data from 2003 to 2021 and examined whether the brightness of marine clouds can be explained by their main properties. We found that the relationship varies across the globe, and that regional differences need to be considered to better understand cloud impact on climate.