Evidence for the 3D Radiative Effects of Boundary-Layer Clouds From Observations of Direct and Diffuse Surface Solar Fluxes
Abstract
Numerical experiments have revealed the importance of horizontal transport of light in the presence of clouds (“3D effects”), with consequences for climate, weather, and solar resource availability predictions. Yet, analysis of 3D effects from observations remain sparse because of the difficulty to isolate the effect of horizontal transport in radiation measurements. In this study, we provide observational evidence for 3D effects based on the direct-diffuse partition of surface solar fluxes. It is compared to outputs from the ecRad radiative transfer scheme run on retrieved cloud profiles. Furthermore, the direct-beam calculation takes careful account of the field-of-view of the pyrheliometer to ensure consistency between observed and modeled direct fluxes. Only the solver that accounts for 3D effects is able to reproduce the observed mean direct-diffuse partition as a function of solar zenith angle and cloud cover, in particular at large solar zenith angles where cloud sides intercept most of the direct beam.
- Authors:
-
[1];
- Sorbonne Univ., Paris (France). CNRS, LMD-IPSL
- European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast, Reading (United Kingdom)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Data Center
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1808461
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 48; Journal Issue: 14; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; cloud 3D radiative effects; direct-diffuse fluxes; surface observations of solar radiation
Citation Formats
Villefranque, Najda, and Hogan, Robin J. Evidence for the 3D Radiative Effects of Boundary-Layer Clouds From Observations of Direct and Diffuse Surface Solar Fluxes. United States: N. p., 2021.
Web. doi:10.1029/2021gl093369.
Villefranque, Najda, & Hogan, Robin J. Evidence for the 3D Radiative Effects of Boundary-Layer Clouds From Observations of Direct and Diffuse Surface Solar Fluxes. United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021gl093369
Villefranque, Najda, and Hogan, Robin J. Thu .
"Evidence for the 3D Radiative Effects of Boundary-Layer Clouds From Observations of Direct and Diffuse Surface Solar Fluxes". United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021gl093369. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1808461.
@article{osti_1808461,
title = {Evidence for the 3D Radiative Effects of Boundary-Layer Clouds From Observations of Direct and Diffuse Surface Solar Fluxes},
author = {Villefranque, Najda and Hogan, Robin J.},
abstractNote = {Numerical experiments have revealed the importance of horizontal transport of light in the presence of clouds (“3D effects”), with consequences for climate, weather, and solar resource availability predictions. Yet, analysis of 3D effects from observations remain sparse because of the difficulty to isolate the effect of horizontal transport in radiation measurements. In this study, we provide observational evidence for 3D effects based on the direct-diffuse partition of surface solar fluxes. It is compared to outputs from the ecRad radiative transfer scheme run on retrieved cloud profiles. Furthermore, the direct-beam calculation takes careful account of the field-of-view of the pyrheliometer to ensure consistency between observed and modeled direct fluxes. Only the solver that accounts for 3D effects is able to reproduce the observed mean direct-diffuse partition as a function of solar zenith angle and cloud cover, in particular at large solar zenith angles where cloud sides intercept most of the direct beam.},
doi = {10.1029/2021gl093369},
journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
number = 14,
volume = 48,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jul 15 00:00:00 EDT 2021},
month = {Thu Jul 15 00:00:00 EDT 2021}
}
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