Broken-cloud reconstructions using cloud radar data and Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) data

The radiative effects of very-broken cloud fields remain poorly quantified; generally a cloud's spatial and optical properties and its radiation field are not known simultaneously. Here we attempt to reconstruct cloud optical depths and cloud geometry that are consistent with MISR's nine separate measurements of the cloud's radiation field. Clouds are reconstructed using cloud radar data from the two tropical western Pacific ARM CART sites at Nauru and Manus, and collocated satellite MISR data. Both datasets can be used to derive cloud heights and cloud optical depths, providing an independent check on each other. Monte Carlo radiative transfer simulations provide the radiation fields that correspond to the derived cloud input fields. Comparisons to all of the MISR radiances either provide confidence in the cloud property retrievals, or suggest the manner in which the cloud property retrievals can be improved.