The optical properties of equatorial cirrus in the pilot radiation observation experiment

Conference · Mon Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:263546

Platt, C M.R.; Young, S A; Manson, P; Patterson, G R ^[1]

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1. CSIRO, Victoria (Australia); and others

The development of a sensitive filter radiometer for the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program has been reported. The aim was to develop a reliable and fast instrument that could be used alongside a lidar to obtain near realtime optical properties of clouds, particularly high ice clouds, as they drifted over an ARM Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) site allowing calculation of the radiation divergence in the atmosphere over the site. Obtaining cloud optical properties by the lidar/radiometer, or LIRAD, method was described by Platt et al.; the latter paper also describes a year`s data on mid-latitude cirrus. The optical properties of equatorial cirrus (i.e., cirrus within a few degrees of the equator) have hardly been studied at all. The same is true of tropical cirrus, although a few observations have been reported by Davis and Platt et al.This paper describes obersvations performed on cirrus clouds, analysis methods used, and results.

• Research Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC (United States). Environmental Sciences Div.
• OSTI ID: 263546
• Report Number(s): CONF-9503140--; ON: DE96010942
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CLOUDS
EQUATOR
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
OPTICAL RADAR
RADIOMETERS
WATER VAPOR