Identification

Title

Parameterization of shortwave and longwave radiative properties of ice clouds for use in climate models

Abstract

Climate modeling and prediction require that the parameterization of the radiative effects of ice clouds be as accurate as possible. The radiative properties of ice clouds are highly sensitive to the single-scattering properties of ice particles and ice cloud microphysical properties such as particle habits and size distributions. In this study, parameterizations for shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) radiative properties of ice clouds are developed for three existing schemes using ice cloud microphysical properties obtained from five field campaigns and broadband-averaged single-scattering properties of nonspherical ice particles as functions of the effective particle size D&#x2091 (defined as 1.5 times the ratio of total volume to total projected area), which include hexagonal solid columns and hollow columns, hexagonal plates, six-branch bullet rosettes, aggregates, and droxtals. A combination of the discrete ordinates radiative transfer model and a line-by-line model is used to simulate ice cloud radiative forcing (CRF) at both the surface and the top of the atmosphere (TOA) for the three redeveloped parameterization schemes. The differences in CRF for different parameterization schemes are in the range of −5 to 5 W m⁻². In general, the large differences in SW and total CRF occur for thick ice clouds, whereas the large differences in LW CRF occur for ice clouds with small ice particles (D&#x2091 less than 20 μm). The redeveloped parameterization schemes are then applied to the radiative transfer models used for climate models. The ice cloud optical and microphysical properties from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud product over a granule and the collocated atmospheric profiles from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) product are input into these radiative transfer models to compare the differences in CRF between the redeveloped and existing parameterization schemes. Although differences between these schemes are small in the LW CRF, the differences in the SW CRF are quite large.

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document

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http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7vm4dh9

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Dataset language

eng

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geoscientificInformation

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title

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publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

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publication

effective date

2009-12-01T00:00:00Z

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Copyright 2009 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work.

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None

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OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

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pointOfContact

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