HR: 1340h
AN: A23A-0923    [Abstracts]
TI: 3D radiative effects in satellite retrievals of cloud droplet radii
AU: * Marshak, A
EM: marshak@climate.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA/GSFC (Code 613.2), Greenbelt, MD 20771
AU: Varnai, T
EM: varnai@climate.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: University of Maryland Baltimore County, NASA/GSFC (Code 613.2), Greenbelt, MD 20771
AU: Platnick, S
EM: platnick@climate.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA/GSFC (Code 613.2), Greenbelt, MD 20771
AU: Wen, G
EM: wen@climate.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: University of Maryland Baltimore County, NASA/GSFC (Code 613.2), Greenbelt, MD 20771
AB: In this presentation we take a close look at the radiative effects of cloud 3D structure in retrievals of the droplet effective radius. There are several dozens of papers that study the radiative effects of cloud horizontal inhomogeneity on the retrievals of cloud optical depth but only few of them deal with cloud droplet sizes. In the presentation we discuss separately the effects of "resolved" and "unresolved" cloud variability that may lead, respectively, to underestimation and overestimation of the retrieved values of the droplet effective radius. The theoretical results will be illustrated with examples of LES simulated Stratocumulus and Cumulus cloud fields as well as MODIS and ASTER observations. Finally, the effects of cloud variability on studies of cloud-aerosol interactions using satellite data will be also discussed.
DE: 0319 Cloud optics
DE: 0321 Cloud/radiation interaction
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005