HR: 11:53h
AN: A32B-07    [Abstracts]
TI: The sensitivity of 3D cloud-aerosol radiative interaction to spatial variability of clouds and aerosol
AU: * Kassianov, E
EM: Evgueni.Kassianov@pnl.gov
AF: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 3200 Q. Avenue, MSIN: K9-24, Richland, WA 99354, United States
AU: Ovtchinnikov, M
EM: Mikhail.Ovtchinnikov@pnl.gov
AF: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 3200 Q. Avenue, MSIN: K9-24, Richland, WA 99354, United States
AB: Conversion of satellite-observed reflectances to the aerosol optical depth (AOD) in the vicinity of clouds is highly conjectural due to large three-dimensional (3D) cloud-induced enhancement. A few recent studies based on satellite-derived cloud optical depth have provided the first important demonstration of the spectral dependence of this enhancement and its sensitivity to the surrounding clouds. However, these studies have assumed the vertical variability of clouds and uniform distribution of aerosol. Real aerosols exhibit large spatial variability, which is often strongly correlated with the 3D cloud variability. The present work further evaluates the spectral dependence of the cloud-induced enhancement on the vertical/horizontal gradients in aerosol and cloud properties and its effect on the accuracy of the AOD retrieval in cloud-free pixels. We perform such evaluation using more realistic 3D fields of cumulus clouds and aerosol produced by Large Eddy Simulation model and Monte Carlo radiative calculations.
DE: 3311 Clouds and aerosols
DE: 3359 Radiative processes
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting