The Radiative Characteristics of Five Shallow Cumuli Clusters Observed within the Northeast Pacific Stratocumulus-to-Cumulus Transition

The equatorward transition from stratocumulus in the world's eastern subtropical basins is often to mesoscale cumuli clusters, rather than to simple 'popcorn' cumuli. Such clusters challenge our thinking of the relationship of cumulus clouds to the larger climate system. Here we investigate the properties of five cumuli clusters sampled by the NSF Gulfstream V during the Cloud System Evolution over the Trades (CSET) campaign, held over the NE Pacific in July, 2015, to clarify the links between the cloud properties to their radiative impacts. Measurements include solar spectral irradiances, from which cloud optical depths and cloud effective radii can be retrieved, and broadband infrared and solar measurements.