1-km MODIS observations of ship tracks off the west coast of the U.S. are used to characterize changes in cloud visible optical depths, cloud droplet radii, cloud cover fraction, and column cloud liquid water amount as low-level marine clouds respond to particle pollution from underlying ships. This study re-examines the...
Ship tracks have proven to be an ideal laboratory for studying the response of marine
stratocumulus to an increase in aerosol pollution. Here the response of already
polluted marine stratocumulus to further pollution was examined by studying the
clouds where two ship tracks cross. 78 crossings of ship tracks were...
One kilometer Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) observations for Terra (morning) and Aqua (afternoon) satellites were used to follow the morning to afternoon evolution of marine stratocumulus clouds that were affected by ship stack exhaust. The observations covered the summer months of 2002-2003 and August 2007 for marine layers off...
Cloud reflectivity is a function of cloud liquid water content and droplet number concentration. Since cloud droplets form around pre-existing aerosol particles, cloud droplet number concentration depends on the availability of particles that can serve as cloud condensation nuclei. Given constant liquid water amount, increased availability of cloud condensation nuclei...
Aerosols are tiny particles that serve as nuclei for cloud droplet and ice crystal formation. Increases in aerosol concentration lead to clouds with smaller but more numerous droplets. Some recent studies have found evidence that ice crystal size in deep convective clouds is also reduced by elevated aerosol concentrations. In...
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4.1 The number of SSF FOVs covering 60° S to 60° N over the
entire globe from 2001
The 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment established that the effect of clouds on climate contributes the largest uncertainty in predicting the future climate. Satellite observations provide an opportunity for learning about the behavior of clouds. This thesis seeks to assess the accuracy of cloud properties retrieved from multispectral...
Adiabatic parcel models suggest specific relationships between cloud thickness and cloud properties. Such relationships govern cloud radiative forcing and thus cloud feedbacks in the climate system. Current remote sensing techniques work well at measuring these properties in low-level cloud systems that are overcast. Significant biases exist, however, when measuring cloud...
The operational processing of MODIS imagery to produce the MOD06 cloud product is based on the assumption that cloudy 1-km pixels are overcast. This assumption is examined using a partly cloudy pixel retrieval scheme, which allows for fractional cloud cover within the 1-km pixels. Cloud flags attached to 250-m MODIS...
The atmospheric radiative transfer model MOCARAT was developed and is presented in this thesis. MOCARAT employs a Monte Carlo Technique for the accurate modeling of band radiances and reflectances in an atmospheric system with a ruffled ocean surface as a lower boundary. The atmospheric radiative transfer is modeled with consideration...