Microphysical and radiative properties of marine stratocumulus from tethered balloon measurements

Abstract

The vertical profiles of the observed longwave cooling rates were similar in structure and magnitude not only to previous measurements of marine statocumulus, but also to the cooling rates computed by the two-stream radiative transfer model. The solar heating rates measured in the clouds, however, were systematically much larger than the rates calculated in the model. Solar albedo measurements showed that the visible spectrum tended to be reflected by the clouds more than the near IR spectrum. The results from the flights on 10 and 13 July 1987, suggest that the effects of heterogeneities on the radiative transfer through the cloud may be more important in the visible than in the near IR. -from Authors