11th Conference on Atmospheric Radiation and the 11th Conference on Cloud Physics

Wednesday, 5 June 2002
Midlatitude Cirrus Cloud Radiative Forcing Calculated from Retrieved
Zhien Wang, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; and K. Sassen
The effects of clouds on the surface and top-of-atmosphere energy budgets are very significant, and depend sensitively on cloud properties. Cirrus clouds affect the energy budgets strongly through both albedo and greenhouse effects. Cirrus cloud ice water content and general effective size profiles are retrieved from lidar and radar measurements with our developed lidar-radar algorithm. The lidar-radar algorithm is applied to Raman lidar and MMCR measurements at SGP CART site and generated ~1000 hrs of cirrus cloud microphysical properties. Based on this data set and a broadband radiative transfer model, midlatitude cirrus cloud radiative forcing is calculated and discussed. Statistics and dependencies of cirrus cloud radiative forcing as a function of cloud temperature will be presented.

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