Direct Observations of Excess Solar Absorption by Clouds

Aircraft measurements of solar flux in the cloudy tropical atmosphere reveal that solar absorption by clouds is anomalously large when compared to theoretical estimates. The ratio of cloud forcing at an altitude of 20 kilometers to that at the surface is 1.58 rather than 1.0 as predicted by models. These results were derived from a cloud radiation experiment in which identical instrumentation was deployed on coordinated stacked aircraft. These findings indicate a significant difference between measurements and theory and imply that the interaction between clouds and solar radiation is poorly understood

Ground-based passive remote sensing during FIRE IFO 2

During the FIRE Cirrus IFO II, a set of passive radiometers were deployed at the Coffeyville, Kansas, Hub, site B, to compliment the Radiation Measurement System (RAMS) on board the NASA ER-2 and NCAR Sabreliner. The following three instruments were used at the surface: Narrow-field-of View IR Radiometer (NFOV); Total-Direct-Diffuse Radiometer (TDDR); and Near-Infrared Spectroradiometer (NIRS)

Optical properties of cirrus derived from airborne measurements during FIRE IFO 2

The Radiation Measurement System (RAMS) on board the NASA ER-2 was used to acquire several optical parameters of interest during the FIRE Cirrus IFO 2. In this abstract we present results from the 26 Nov. IFO when the ER-2 flew over the Coffeyville airport hub site. We show retrieved optical thickness and cloud temperature, along with optical thickness obtained from RAMS instruments on the NCAR Sabreliner and at the surface site B. Independent retrieval of optical thickness, from the ER-2 and at the surface, are in agreement during the overpasses. Cirrus optical depths, derived from each platform, ranged between 1 and 2

An overview of the ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) project: aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions in the southeast Atlantic basin

Southern Africa produces almost a third of the Earth's biomass burning (BB) aerosol particles, yet the fate of these particles and their influence on regional and global climate is poorly understood. ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) is a 5-year NASA EVS-2 (Earth Venture Suborbital-2) investigation with three intensive observation periods designed to study key atmospheric processes that determine the climate impacts of these aerosols. During the Southern Hemisphere winter and spring (June&ndash;October), aerosol particles reaching 3&ndash;5&thinsp;km in altitude are transported westward over the southeast Atlantic, where they interact with one of the largest subtropical stratocumulus (Sc) cloud decks in the world. The representation of these interactions in climate models remains highly uncertain in part due to a scarcity of observational constraints on aerosol and cloud properties, as well as due to the parameterized treatment of physical processes. Three ORACLES deployments by the NASA P-3 aircraft in September&nbsp;2016, August&nbsp;2017, and October&nbsp;2018 (totaling &sim;350 science flight hours), augmented by the deployment of the NASA ER-2 aircraft for remote sensing in September 2016 (totaling &sim;100 science flight hours), were intended to help fill this observational gap. ORACLES focuses on three fundamental science themes centered on the climate effects of African BB aerosols: (a) direct aerosol radiative effects, (b) effects of aerosol absorption on atmospheric circulation and clouds, and (c) aerosol&ndash;cloud microphysical interactions. This paper summarizes the ORACLES science objectives, describes the project implementation, provides an overview of the flights and measurements in each deployment, and highlights the integrative modeling efforts from cloud to global scales to address science objectives. Significant new findings on the vertical structure of BB aerosol physical and chemical properties, chemical aging, cloud condensation nuclei, rain and precipitation statistics, and aerosol indirect effects are emphasized, but their detailed descriptions are the subject of separate publications. The main purpose of this paper is to familiarize the broader scientific community with the ORACLES project and the dataset it produced. </div

Neural network for aerosol retrieval from hyperspectral imagery

We retrieve aerosol optical thickness (AOT) independently for brown carbon, dust and sulfate from hyperspectral image data. The model, a neural network, is trained on atmospheric radiative transfer calculations from MODTRAN 6.0 with varying aerosol concentration and type, surface albedo, water vapor, and viewing geometries. From a set of test radiative transfer calculations, we are able to retrieve AOT with a standard error of better than &plusmn;0.05. No a priori information on the surface albedo or atmospheric state is necessary for our model. We apply the model to AVIRIS-NG imagery from a recent campaign over India and demonstrate its performance under high and low aerosol loadings and different aerosol types. </div

Evolution of Gases and Particles from a Savanna Fire in South Africa

Airborne measurements of particles and gases from a 1000-ha savanna fire in South Africa are presented. These measurements represent the most extensive data set reported on the aging of biomass smoke. The measurements include total concentrations of particles (CN), particle sizes, particulate organic carbon and black carbon, light-scattering coefficients, downwelling UV fluxes, and mixing ratios for 42 trace gases and 7 particulate species. The ratios of excess nitrate, ozone, and gaseous acetic acid to excess CO increased significantly as the smoke aged over ∼40–45 min, indicating that these species were formed by photochemistry in the plume. For 17 other species, the excess mixing ratio normalized by the excess mixing ratio of CO decreased significantly with smoke age. The relative rates of decrease for a number of chemical species imply that the average OH concentration in the plume was ∼1.7 × 107 molecules cm−3. Excess CN, normalized by excess CO, decreased rapidly during the first ∼5 min of aging, probably due to coagulation, and then increased, probably due to gas-to-particle conversion. The CO-normalized concentrations of particles \u3c1.5 μm in diameter decreased, and particles \u3e1.5 μm diameter increased, with smoke age. The spectral depletion of solar radiation by the smoke is depicted. The downwelling UV flux near the vertical center of the plume was about two-thirds of that near the top of the plume

Directly Measured Heating Rates of a Tropical Subvisible Cirrus Cloud

We present the first direct measurements of the infrared and solar heating rates of a tropical subvisible cirrus (SVC) cloud sampled off the east coast of Nicaragua on 25 July 2007 by the NASA ER-2 aircraft during the Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling Experiment (TC4). On this day a persistent thin cirrus layer, with mostly clear skies underneath, was detected in real time by the cloud lidar on the ER-2, and the aircraft was directed to profile down through the SVC. Measurements of the net broadband infrared irradiance and spectrally integrated solar irradiance above, below, and through the SVC are used to determine the infrared and solar heating rates of the cloud. The lidar measurements show that the variable SVC layer was located between approximately 13 and 15 km. Its midvisible optical depth varied from 0.01 to 0.10 with a mean of 0.034 +/- 0.033. Its depolarization ratio was approximately 0.4, indicative of ice clouds. From the divergence of the measured net irradiances the infrared heating rate of the SVC was determined to be approximately 2.50 - 3.24 K/d and the solar heating rate was found to be negligible. These values are consistent with previous indirect observations of other SVC and with model-generated heating rates of SVC with similar optical depths. This study illustrates the utility and potential of the profiling sampling strategy employed here. A more fully instrumented high-altitude aircraft that also included in situ cloud and aerosol probes would provide a comprehensive data set for characterizing both the radiative and microphysical properties of these ubiquitous tropical cloud

Climate Change Observation Accuracy: Requirements and Economic Value

This presentation will summarize a new quantitative approach to determining the required accuracy for climate change observations. Using this metric, most current global satellite observations struggle to meet this accuracy level. CLARREO (Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory) is a new satellite mission designed to resolve this challenge is by achieving advances of a factor of 10 for reflected solar spectra and a factor of 3 to 5 for thermal infrared spectra. The CLARREO spectrometers can serve as SI traceable benchmarks for the Global Satellite Intercalibration System (GSICS) and greatly improve the utility of a wide range of LEO and GEO infrared and reflected solar satellite sensors for climate change observations (e.g. CERES, MODIS, VIIIRS, CrIS, IASI, Landsat, etc). A CLARREO Pathfinder mission for flight on the International Space Station is included in the U.S. President"TM"s fiscal year 2016 budget, with launch in 2019 or 2020. Providing more accurate decadal change trends can in turn lead to more rapid narrowing of key climate science uncertainties such as cloud feedback and climate sensitivity. A new study has been carried out to quantify the economic benefits of such an advance and concludes that the economic value is ~ $9 Trillion U.S. dollars. The new value includes the cost of carbon emissions reductions

The effect of low-level thin arctic clouds on shortwave irradiance: evaluation of estimates from spaceborne passive imagery with aircraft observations

Cloud optical properties such as optical thickness along with surface albedo are important inputs for deriving the shortwave radiative effects of clouds from spaceborne remote sensing. Owing to insufficient knowledge about the snow or ice surface in the Arctic, cloud detection and the retrieval products derived from passive remote sensing, such as from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), are difficult to obtain with adequate accuracy&nbsp;&ndash; especially for low-level thin clouds, which are ubiquitous in the Arctic. This study aims at evaluating the spectral and broadband irradiance calculated from MODIS-derived cloud properties in the Arctic using aircraft measurements collected during the Arctic Radiation-IceBridge Sea and Ice Experiment (ARISE), specifically using the upwelling and downwelling shortwave spectral and broadband irradiance measured by the Solar Spectral Flux Radiometer (SSFR) and the BroadBand Radiometer system (BBR). This starts with the derivation of surface albedo from SSFR and BBR, accounting for the heterogeneous surface in the marginal ice zone (MIZ) with aircraft camera imagery, followed by subsequent intercomparisons of irradiance measurements and radiative transfer calculations in the presence of thin clouds. It ends with an attribution of any biases we found to causes, based on the spectral dependence and the variations in the measured and calculated irradiance along the flight track. The spectral surface albedo derived from the airborne radiometers is consistent with prior ground-based and airborne measurements and adequately represents the surface variability for the study region and time period. Somewhat surprisingly, the primary error in MODIS-derived irradiance fields for this study stems from undetected clouds, rather than from the retrieved cloud properties. In our case study, about 27&thinsp;% of clouds remained undetected, which is attributable to clouds with an optical thickness of less than 0.5. We conclude that passive imagery has the potential to accurately predict shortwave irradiances in the region if the detection of thin clouds is improved. Of at least equal importance, however, is the need for an operational imagery-based surface albedo product for the polar regions that adequately captures its temporal, spatial, and spectral variability to estimate cloud radiative effects from spaceborne remote sensing. &nbsp;</p

Shortwave Radiance to Irradiance Conversion for Earth Radiation Budget Satellite Observations: A Review

Observing the Earth radiation budget (ERB) from satellites is crucial for monitoring and understanding Earth&rsquo;s climate. One of the major challenges for ERB observations, particularly for reflected shortwave radiation, is the conversion of the measured radiance to the more energetically relevant quantity of radiative flux, or irradiance. This conversion depends on the solar-viewing geometry and the scene composition associated with each instantaneous observation. We first outline the theoretical basis for algorithms to convert shortwave radiance to irradiance, most commonly known as empirical angular distribution models (ADMs). We then review the progression from early ERB satellite observations that applied relatively simple ADMs, to current ERB satellite observations that apply highly sophisticated ADMs. A notable development is the dramatic increase in the number of scene types, made possible by both the extended observational record and the enhanced scene information now available from collocated imager information. Compared with their predecessors, current shortwave ADMs result in a more consistent average albedo as a function of viewing zenith angle and lead to more accurate instantaneous and mean regional irradiance estimates. One implication of the increased complexity is that the algorithms may not be directly applicable to observations with insufficient accompanying imager information, or for existing or new satellite instruments where detailed scene information is not available. Recent advances that complement and build on the base of current approaches, including machine learning applications and semi-physical calculations, are highlighted.</p