HR: 13:40h
AN: A33F-01 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Assessing the Vertical Structure of Global Atmospheric Radiative Heating Using CloudSat
AU: * L'Ecuyer, T
EM: tristan@atmos.colostate.edu
AF: Colorado State University, Department of Atmospheric Science, Fort Collins, CO 80523, United States
AB: It is well known that clouds and precipitation exert a profound influence on the propagation of radiation through the Earth's atmosphere. In fact, feedbacks between clouds, radiation, and precipitation represent one of the most important unresolved factors inhibiting our ability to predict the consequences of global climate change. By virtue of its sensitivity to both clouds and precipitation, CloudSat is uniquely suited to addressing the problem of quantifying their role in modifying the vertical structure of atmospheric radiative heating on global scales. The CloudSat radiative fluxes and heating rates product leverages CloudSat's unprecedented cloud and vertical structure information to infer profiles of longwave and shortwave radiative heating in the atmosphere at a resolution that has not been possible until now. This presentation will describe the underlying physical bases of the algorithm, summarize early efforts to evaluate the products, and highlight preliminary findings from the analysis of the first year of CloudSat data. Emphasis will be placed on the problem of assessing the varying impacts of clouds with different morphologies on the vertical distribution of radiative heating in the atmosphere over different regions of the globe.
DE: 3310 Clouds and cloud feedbacks
DE: 3359 Radiative processes
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting