Cloud Types Leading to Variability in Cloud Radiative Effects and the Top-of-Atmosphere Radiative Budget.

Quantifying cloud feedbacks requires an understanding of how changes in cloud types affect cloud radiative effects and the Earth's radiative budget. Determining cloud radiative impact sensitivities remains challenging due to large natural variability in the climate system. Given the significant role of clouds in the global energy budget, continued refinement of cloud radiative effect estimates are essential to assess the effects of different cloud types on climate. Recent studies using satellite-based data from CloudSat show that alterations in multi-layer cloud vertical structures play a central role in atmospheric heating and cloud radiative effects. Using new vertically resolved cloud optical depth estimates from the CloudSat radiative fluxes and heating rates data product (2B-FLXHR-lidar), this work provides an observational approach to investigate how different cloud types and their properties contribute to variations in cloud radiative effects and their respective impact on the net top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiative balance. Emphasis is placed on the importance of upper-level ice clouds and multi-layer cloud structures; the CloudSat data can be used to investigate the vertical structure of cloud properties within multi-layer structures leading to cloud radiative effects. Cloud types leading to interannual variability will be discussed to aid in quantifying the natural variability observed in radiative cloud effects and the net TOA radiative imbalance.