Physics
Scientific paper
Jul 2003
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003georl..30nclm9r&link_type=abstract
Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 30, Issue 14, pp. CLM 9-1, CiteID 1776, DOI 10.1029/2003GL017684
Physics
10
Atmospheric Composition And Structure: Aerosols And Particles (0345, 4801), Atmospheric Composition And Structure: Cloud Physics And Chemistry, Atmospheric Composition And Structure: Pollution-Urban And Regional (0305), Global Change: Impact Phenomena, Global Change: Remote Sensing
Scientific paper
Satellite-based remote sensing instruments for measuring the aerosol indirect effect (IE = -d ln r e /d ln τ a where r e is the cloud drop effective radius and τ a is the aerosol optical depth) show large disparities in the magnitude of the effect for similar regions of the globe. Over the oceans, the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) measures an indirect effect twice that measured by the POLarization and Directionality of the Earth Reflectances (POLDER) (0.17 vs. 0.085). We address possible reasons for these disparities. It is argued that AVHRR misses the optically thin and broken clouds, especially over land, while POLDER misses clouds with variable top heights in its field of view. POLDER is also biased to thinner, less turbulent clouds. The sensitivity of the indirect effect to cloud turbulence therefore biases POLDER to lower values. POLDER measures an indirect effect over the ocean that is about twice that over the land (0.085 vs. 0.04). By considering factors such as dynamics, variability in cloud liquid water path, decoupling of the boundary layer, and the effect of salt particles, we argue that this could be an artifact, and that the indirect effect on cloud microstructure may be stronger over land than over the ocean.
Feingold Graham
Rosenfeld Daniel
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