Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Factors controlling cloud albedo in marine subtropical stratocumulus regions in climate models and satellite observations
Stockholm University, Faculty of Science, Department of Meteorology .ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4867-4007
Stockholm University, Faculty of Science, Department of Meteorology .
Stockholm University, Faculty of Science, Department of Meteorology .
2016 (English)In: Journal of Climate, ISSN 0894-8755, E-ISSN 1520-0442, Vol. 29, no 10, p. 3559-3587Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This study focuses on the radiative properties of five subtropical marine stratocumulus cloud regions, on monthly mean scale. Through examination of the relation between total albedo and cloud fraction, and its variability and relation to other parameters, some of the factors controlling the reflectivity, or albedo, of the clouds in these regions are investigated. It is found that the main part of the variability in albedo at a given cloud fraction can be related to temporal, rather than spatial variability, indicating spatial homogeneity in cloud radiative properties in the studied regions. This is seen most clearly in satellite observations, but also in an ensemble of climate models. Further comparison between satellite data and output from climate models shows that there is good agreement with respect to the role of liquid water path, the parameter that can be assumed to be the primary source of variability in cloud reflectivity for a given cloud fraction. On the other hand, the influence of aerosol loading on cloud albedo differs between models and observations. The cloud-albedo effect, or cloud brightening caused by aerosol through its coupling to cloud droplet number concentration and droplet size, is found not to dominate in the satellite observations on monthly mean scale, as it appears to do on this scale in the climate models. The disagreement between models and observations is particularly strong in regions with frequent occurrence of absorbing aerosols above clouds, where satellite data contrary to the climate models indicate a scene darkening with increasing aerosol loading.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2016. Vol. 29, no 10, p. 3559-3587
National Category
Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-125298DOI: 10.1175/JCLI-D-15-0095.1ISI: 000375950400005OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-125298DiVA, id: diva2:892349
Available from: 2016-01-10 Created: 2016-01-10 Last updated: 2022-02-23Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full text

Authority records

Bender, Frida

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Bender, Frida
By organisation
Department of Meteorology
In the same journal
Journal of Climate
Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 485 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf