Effects of observed horizontal inhomogeneities within cirrus clouds on solar radiative transfer

摘要: [1] In situ microphysical and combined radar radiometer measurements of 11 cirrus clouds from Central Equatorial Pacific Experiment (CEPEX), European Cloud Radiation (EUCREX), investigation Clouds by Ground-Based Airborne Radar Lidar (CARL), First International Satellite Climatology Project (ISCCP) Regional (FIRE) are used to investigate effects horizontal cloud inhomogeneities on solar radiative transfer. A three-dimensional ray-tracing model (GRIMALDI), based the Monte Carlo method, is calculate upward downward flux densities absorption for spectral range 0.38 4.0 μm. Radiative calculated using inhomogeneous derived observations horizontally vertically averaged homogeneous clouds. Horizontally values heterogeneous can differ up 30% those convectively induced tropical The midlatitude cases examined tended be more homogeneous, hence differences between properties did not exceed 10%. For with mean optical thicknesses smaller than 5 relative variances thickness 0.2, errors caused assumption ±10%.