Vertical distributions of clouds and radiative heating rates in the tropical western Pacific

The Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program operates three cloud and radiation measurement sites in the tropical western Pacific region. These sites are located on the islands of Manus (Papua New Guinea) and Nauru and outside of Darwin, Australia. Each of these sites includes a millimeter cloud radar that provides continuous measurements of the vertical distribution of hydrometers from which cloud properties are calculated. The sites also include radiosonde stations and radiosondes are launched daily from each site. From these temperature, humidity, and cloud property profiles, we have used a radiative transfer model to calculate vertical profiles of radiative fluxes and heating rates with high temporal resolution for six months at Manus and for nine months at Nauru. Using these data, we examine the vertical distribution of cloud properties and heating rates at each site. We also examine the diurnal cycle of cloudiness and the associated heating rates by compositing the long time series of high temporal resolution data.