Aerosol particles can act as cloud condensation nuclei and thereby influence the number and size of droplets in clouds. Consequently, anthropogenic particles have the potential to influence global climate by increasing cloud albedo and decreasing precipitation efficiencies. Enhanced cloud reflectances associated with increases in panicle number have been observed, but...
Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) 4-km data collected over the northeastern Atlantic off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula for May to August 1995 were used to investigate the feasibility of empirically deriving estimates of the aerosol indirect radiative forcing. A retrieval scheme was used to derive cloud visible...
This study is mainly concentrated on examining the positive cloud-to-ground lightning activity associated with Mesoscale Convective Systems. Six MCS events which occurred during the O.K. PRE-STORM program in 1985 are studied. Data indicating the location and polarity of the cloud-to-ground lightning flashes from a lightning location network are analyzed in...
This two-part study attempts to find appropriate mass dimension and terminal velocity relationships that,
when considered together with particle size distributions (PSD), agree with coincident measurements of ice
water content (IWC), and with variables related to higher moments such as the mean mass-weighted fall
speed. Reliable relationships are required for...
A two-dimensional numerical mesoscale model, which ic1udes
radiative and turbulent transfers, has been constructed to study the
formation, development and dissipation of coastal stratus cloud
under an inversion. In the model, the delta-Eddington and emissivity
approximations are used for the solar and thermal radiative
transfers, respectively. K-theory parameterization is adopted...
Thermodynamical and dynamical aspects of tropical cloud
clusters are studied using data from the GARP Atlantic Tropical
Experiment (GATE). The data set used in this study is a
three-dimensional gridded set of upper-air analyses constructed by
Ooyama and Chu (Hurricane Research Division, AOML/NOAA and
SSEC-University of Wisconsin) for wind data...
A radiation model was developed for retrieving cloud visible optical depth,
droplet effective radius, and cloud top emission temperature using AVHRR satellite
observations at 0.63, 3.7, and 11 μm. The model was used to determine the sensitivity
of the retrieved properties to various approximations often employed in such retrievals.
Droplet...
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 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...
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...