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The Relevance of the Microphysical and Radiative Properties of Cirrus Clouds to Climate and Climatic Feedback

Authors :
Paul W. Stackhouse
Piotr J. Flatau
Si-Chee Tsay
Graeme L. Stephens
Source :
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 47:1742-1754
Publication Year :
1990
Publisher :
American Meteorological Society, 1990.

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of the relationship between cirrus cloud ice water content and cloud temperature on climate change. A simple mechanistic climate model is used to study the feedback between ice water content and temperature. The central question studied in this paper concerns the extent to which both the radiative and microphysical properties of cirrus cloud influence such a feedback. To address this question, a parameterization of the albedo and emissivity of clouds is introduced. Observations that relate the ice water content to cloud temperature are incorporated in the parameterization to introduce a temperature dependence to both albedo and emittance. The cloud properties relevant to the cloud feedback are expressed as functions of particles size re, asymmetry parameter g and cloud temperature and analyses of aircraft measurements, lidar and ground based radiometer data are used to select re and g. It was shown that scattering calculations assuming spherical particles with a di...

Details

ISSN :
15200469 and 00224928
Volume :
47
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........49dc86dc81c7b24b1a0e5fec13113a66