Cloud types and the tropical Earth radiation budget, revised

Dhuria, Harbans L.; Kyle, H. Lee

Nimbus-7 cloud and Earth radiation budget data are compared in a study of the effects of clouds on the tropical radiation budget. The data consist of daily averages over fixed 500 sq km target areas, and the months of July 1979 and January 1980 were chosen to show the effect of seasonal changes. Six climate regions, consisting of 14 to 24 target areas each, were picked for intensive analysis because they exemplified the range in the tropical cloud/net radiation interactions. The normal analysis was to consider net radiation as the independent variable and examine how cloud cover, cloud type, albedo and emitted radiation varied with the net radiation. Two recurring themes keep repeating on a local, regional, and zonal basis: the net radiation is strongly influenced by the average cloud type and amount present, but most net radiation values could be produced by several combinations of cloud types and amount. The regions of highest net radiation (greater than 125 W/sq m) tend to have medium to heavy cloud cover. In these cases, thin medium altitude clouds predominate. Their cloud tops are normally too warm to be classified as cirrus by the Nimbus cloud algorithm. A common feature in the tropical oceans are large regions where the total regional cloud cover varies from 20 to 90 percent, but with little regional difference in the net radiation. The monsoon and rain areas are high net radiation regions.

Document ID

19900011266

Acquisition Source

Legacy CDMS

Document Type

Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)

Authors

Date Acquired

September 6, 2013

Publication Date

December 1, 1989

Subject Category

Report/Patent Number

Accession Number

90N20582

Funding Number(s)

Distribution Limits

Public

Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

Available Downloads

Name

Type

19900011266.pdf

STI

No Preview Available

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Available Downloads

Related Records