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Quantifying Diurnal Cloud Radiative Effects by Cloud Type in the Tropical Western Pacific

Journal Article · · Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology
 [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  2. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/Earth Systems Research Lab., Boulder, CO (United States)
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Cloud radiative effects are examined using long-term datasets collected at the three Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facilities in the tropical western Pacific. We quantify the surface radiation budget, cloud populations, and cloud radiative effects by partitioning the data by cloud type, time of day, and as a function of large scale modes of variability such as El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phase and wet/dry seasons at Darwin. The novel facet of our analysis is that we break aggregate cloud radiative effects down by cloud type across the diurnal cycle. The Nauru cloud populations and subsequently the surface radiation budget are strongly impacted by ENSO variability whereas the cloud populations over Manus only shift slightly in response to changes in ENSO phase. The Darwin site exhibits large seasonal monsoon related variations. We show that while deeper convective clouds have a strong conditional influence on the radiation reaching the surface, their limited frequency reduces their aggregate radiative impact. The largest source of shortwave cloud radiative effects at all three sites comes from low clouds. We use the observations to demonstrate that potential model biases in the amplitude of the diurnal cycle and mean cloud frequency would lead to larger errors in the surface energy budget compared to biases in the timing of the diurnal cycle of cloud frequency. Our results provide solid benchmarks to evaluate model simulations of cloud radiative effects in the tropics.
Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Scientific User Facilities Division; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1203854
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA--106270; KP1701000
Journal Information:
Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 54; ISSN 1558-8424
Publisher:
American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (1)

Characteristics of mid‐level clouds over West Africa
  • Bourgeois, Elsa; Bouniol, Dominique; Couvreux, Fleur
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 144, Issue 711 https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3215
journal January 2018

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Darwin
El Nino
cloud radiative
cloud radiative effects
diurnal cycle
diurnal effects
energy budget/balance
radiative fluxes
tropics