Three-dimensional effects and shortwave cloud radiative forcing associated with shallow cumuli over the central North America

Larry K. Berg; David Mills Jr.; Evgueni I. Kassianov; Charles N. Long

doi:10.1117/12.832327

29 September 2009 Three-dimensional effects and shortwave cloud radiative forcing associated with shallow cumuli over the central North America

Larry K. Berg, David Mills Jr., Evgueni I. Kassianov, Charles N. Long

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7475, Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere XIV; 747504 (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.832327
Event: SPIE Remote Sensing, 2009, Berlin, Germany

Abstract

Shallow cumuli are ubiquitous over large areas of the globe, including both the interior of continents and the trade wind regions over the oceans. Measurements made at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility, located in central North America, provide a unique long-term data set that can be used to investigate the influence that these clouds have on the shortwave surface energy budget at a continental location. Using data collected for the summers of 2000 through 2007, inclusive, over 900 hours with fair-weather cumuli were identified using data from a Total Sky Imager, cloud-radar and lidar. Data from a suite of surface radiometers was used to determine the shortwave forcing. This analysis estimates the three-dimensional effects of shallow cumuli by examining the occurrences of both positive and negative shortwave forcing. We show that the average surface shortwave forcing is approximately -45.5 W m^-2. When the data are adjusted to account for periods without shallow clouds, the shortwave forcing over the entire summer (defined as May through August) are reduced in magnitude, with forcings of -2.1 W m^-2.

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Larry K. Berg, David Mills Jr., Evgueni I. Kassianov, and Charles N. Long "Three-dimensional effects and shortwave cloud radiative forcing associated with shallow cumuli over the central North America", Proc. SPIE 7475, Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere XIV, 747504 (29 September 2009); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.832327

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