Clouds and Shortwave Fluxes at Nauru. Part I: Retrieved Cloud Properties
The datasets currently being collected at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM)Program's sites on the islands of Nauru and Manus represent the longest time series of ground based cloud measurements available in the tropical western Pacific region. This paper presents statistics of retrieved microphysical properties of non-precipitating liquid and ice clouds and estimates of the shortwave cloud radiative effect from 12 months of data collected at the Nauru site between June 1999 and May 2000. Non-precipitating liquid clouds observed at Nauru were primarily shallow cumulus with bases less than 1 km. Of the retrieved liquid clouds, 90% had liquid water path less than 100 grams per square meter. The average retrieved effective radius was 9.9 microns, however limitations in the sensitivity of the two-channel microwave radiometer led to large uncertainties in retrieved effective radius and liquid water content for the shallow clouds typically seen at Nauru. The frequency of liquid c loud detection, height of liquid cloud base, and magnitude of the shortwave cloud radiative effect showed a clear diurnal cycle, which is most likely related to the island effect and the existence of the Nauru cloud plume. An average shortwave radiative cloud effect of -55.4 watts per square meter was estimated over the study period, which is significantly lower than studies during the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA-COARE). Differences in clear sky modeling do not seem large enough to account for this difference, indicating that there was probably less cloud over Nauru during the current study period than during TOGA-COARE, which is consistent with the phase of the El-Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) during the two periods.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 15010565
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-37838; KP1201030
- Journal Information:
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 61(6):733-744, Journal Name: Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 61(6):733-744
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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