Ship-based measurements of cloud optical properties during the Atlantic Stratocumulus Transition Experiment

Conference · Sat Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:83210

White, A B ^[1]; Fairall, C W ^[2]

---

1. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
2. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, CO (United States)

The Atlantic Stratocumulus Transition Experiment (ASTEX), conducted in June 1992, was designed with the broad goal of improving the dynamical, radiative, and microphysical models of marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds. This goal was pursued by combining measurements from a number of different platforms including aircraft, satellites, ships, and islands. In this paper, we examine the optical properties of MBL clouds using measurements taken on the NOAA research vessel Malcom Baldridge. We seek the relationship between optical depth and liquid water because this relationship is used to parameterize the optical properties of clouds in many global climate models (GCMs). We compare our results with the results obtained from two other marine cloud studies.

• Research Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC (United States). Environmental Sciences Div.
• OSTI ID: 83210
• Report Number(s): CONF-940277--; ON: DE95009951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AIR-WATER INTERACTIONS
ATLANTIC OCEAN
CLIMATE MODELS
CLOUDS
DATA ACQUISITION
GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
SHIPS