Radiative flux profiles during TWP-ICE

In January and February 2006, The US Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program in collaboration with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and other agencies carried out the Tropical Warm Pool International Cloud Experiment (TWP-ICE) in Darwin Australia. TWP-ICE included airborne measurements of clouds, radiative fluxes, and the atmospheric state, measurements of the surface energy budget, and a dense radiosonde network. Darwin is also home to a permanent ARM site which provides long-term measurements of cloud properties and the surface radiation budget. Here, measurements from a millimeter cloud radar and associated instruments at the Darwin ARM site are used to derive vertical profiles of cloud properties and radiative fluxes during the TWP-ICE period. The airborne measurements of cloud properties and fluxes during this period provide a means of constraining these results and refining the application of these instruments to obtaining cloud and radiative flux profiles from the long term ARM observations.