Radiative heating profiles for tropical cloud regimes

Radiative heating is important for its effects on atmospheric circulation and cloud evolution in addition to its central role in influencing the atmospheric temperature structure. The vertical distribution of radiative heating is determined by the vertical profile of gases such as water vapor, ozone and CO2 as well as by clouds. The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program operates sites around the world which provide measurements of surface radiative fluxes and various measurements of the atmospheric state that effect surface fluxes. Continuously operating millimeter cloud radars at each site provide the means to derive vertical profiles of cloud properties. In previous work, we have used these cloud profiles in combination with profiles of temperature and humidity from radiosondes to calculate radiative flux profiles using a 4-stream radiative transfer model at the three tropical ARM sites: Manus, Nauru, and Darwin. In the current study, we will use the vertical profiles of cloud properties at these sites to segregate the data into distinct cloud regimes. By compositing radiative heating profiles in different regimes, we will define characteristic radiative heating profiles of each cloud regime. Analysis of the data in terms of cloud regime provides datasets which can be more easily compared with climate model results.