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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 4, NUMBER 6, JUNE 1991

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...
RADIATION BUDGET OF THE EARTH

Item #d91jun36

"Ice Particles and the Greenhouse," F. Hoyle (Sch. Mathematics, Univ. Wales, Cardiff CF2 4AG, UK), N.C. Wickramasinghe, Nature, 350(6318), 467, Apr. 11, 1991. Even slight variations in the Earth's albedo, triggered by terrestrial or extraterrestrial influences on condensation nuclei, could overwhelm the effect of doubled CO₂.

Item #d91jun37

"Cloud Albedo Control by Cloud-Top Entrainment," H.P. Hanson (CIRES, Univ. Colorado, Boulder CO 80309), Tellus, 43A(1), 37-48, Jan. 1991. Aircraft data indicate that variations in the water vapor content of the air above the marine inversion can be responsible for the albedo change; implications of this unexpected result for climate modeling are discussed.

Item #d91jun38

"On the Net Radiative Effectiveness of Clouds," D.L. Hartmann (Dept. Atmos. Sci., Univ. Washington, AK-40, Seattle WA 98195), D. Doelling, J. Geophys. Res., 95(D1), 869-891, Jan. 20, 1991. Compares results of two methods of calculating the relative magnitudes of the effects of clouds on outgoing longwave radiation and on reflected solar radiation.

Item #d91jun39

"Cloud Types and the Tropical Earth Radiation Budget," H.L. Dhuria, H.L. Kyle (Code 936, NASA-Goddard, Greenbelt MD 20771), J. Clim., 3(12), 1409-1434, Dec. 1990. A consistent result of comparing Nimbus-7 cloud and earth radiation budget data is that net radiation is strongly influenced by the average cloud type and amount present, but most net radiation values could be produced by several combinations of cloud types and amount.

Item #d91jun40

"Relationship between Longwave Cloud Radiative Forcing at the Surface and the Top of the Atmosphere," Harshvardhan (Dept. Earth Sci., Purdue Univ., W. Lafayette IN 47907), D.A. Randall, D.A. Dazlich, ibid., 1435-1443. In regions where a particular cloud regime exists preferentially, general circulation models show a relationship between the mean longwave cloud radiative forcing at the top of the atmosphere and at the surface.

Item #d91jun41

"Radiation Balance at the Sea Surface in the Atlantic Ocean Region between 40° S and 40° N," H.D. Behr (Deutscher Wetterdienst, Meteor. Observ., Frähmredder 95, D-2000 Hamburg 65, Ger.), J. Geophys. Res., 95(D12), 20,633-20,640, Nov. 20, 1990. A four-week continuous record of solar and terrestrial downward and upward radiation flux densities is shown to be in good agreement with the parameterization reported by Coakley (1979).

Item #d91jun42

"The International Symposium on Radiation (Lille, August 18-24, 1988)," Izvestiya, Atmos. Ocean. Phys., 25(7), 1989. See pp. 576-581, English edition, dated Oct. 1990. Summarizes the quadrennial conference, which covered remote sounding of the Earth, radiation transport theory, modeling radiative processes, and the role of the Earth's radiation and cloud balance in climate change.

Item #d91jun43

"Seasonal Variation of Cloud Radiative Forcing Derived from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment," E.F. Harrison (Atmos. Sci., NASA-Langley, Hampton VA 23665), P. Minnis et al., J. Geophys. Res., 95(D11), 18,687-18,703, Oct. 20, 1990. Comparing ERBE results with general circulation models shows that global net cloud forcing can be determined reasonably well from some current models. Modeled regional and zonal values of radiative cloud forcing, however, need considerable improvement.

Item #d91jun44

"The 1989 IAMAP Symposium on the Earth's Radiation Budget," G. Ohring (Nat. Environ. Satellite, Data & Info. Serv., NOAA, Washington DC 20233), Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 71(10), 1455-1457, Oct. 1990. Held Aug. 3-5, 1989, Reading, England; included application of measurements and calculations of radiative fluxes in the earth-atmosphere system to weather and climate studies.

Item #d91jun45

"Comparison of Cloud Forcing Derived from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment with That Simulated by the NCAR Community Climate Model [CCM]," J.T. Kiehl (NCAR, POB 3000, Boulder CO 80307), V. Ramanathan, J. Geophys. Res., 95(D8), 11,679-11,698, July 20, 1990.

Compares top-of-atmosphere radiative quantities from ERBE with those quantities from the latest CCM version. An overestimate of modeled clear-sky, longwave fluxes is ascribed to the prevalent dryness of the model. Comparison of shortwave cloud radiative forcing indicates deficiencies where marine stratus clouds are absent.

Item #d91jun46

"Discrete Angle Radiative Transfer," ibid.

"1. Scaling and Similarity, Universality and Diffusion," S. Lovejoy (Phys. Dept., McGill Univ., Montréal, Qué. H3A 2T8, Can.), A. Davis et al., 11,699-11,715. Derives and discusses powerful, discrete angle similarity relations for simplifying the difficult angular part of radiative transfer calculations.

"2. Renormalization Approach for Homogeneous and Fractal Clouds," P. Gabriel (Dept. Atmos. Sci., Colorado State Univ., Ft. Collins CO 80523), S. Lovejoy et al., 11,717-11,728. Discusses the analytical application of the theory of Part 1 to homogeneous clouds in one, two and three dimensions, and to a simple deterministic fractal cloud.

"3. Numerical Results and Meteorological Applications," A. Davis (Établissement d'Études Météor., Ctr. Recherches en Météor. Dyn., Météor. Nationale, Paris, France), P. Gabriel et al., 11,729-11,742. Numerically analyzes the same cloud cases explored analytically in Part 2. Several meteorological consequences, especially concerning the "albedo paradox" and global climate models, are discussed, and future directions of investigation are outlined. Much more emphasis should be placed on modeling spatial inhomogeneity and investigating its radiative signature, even if this implies crude treatment of the angular aspect of the radiative transfer problem.

Item #d91jun47

"Comparison of Energy Source Estimates Derived from Atmospheric Circulation Data with Satellite Measurements of Net Radiation," C. Fortelius, E. Holopainen (Dept. Meteor., Univ. Helsinki, Hallituskatu 11-13, SF-00100 Helsinki, Finland), J. Clim., 3(6), 646-660, June 1990. The distribution of net sources of atmospheric dry and latent energy are evaluated by the residual technique using reanalyzed ECMWF FGGE level IIIb data. Their sum is compared to simultaneous Nimbus-7 ERB estimates of the net radiation at the top of the atmosphere.

Item #d91jun48

"The Influence of Clouds on Radiation: A Climate Modeling Perspective," Y. Fouquart (Lab. d'Optique Atmos., Bâtiment P. 5, Univ. Sci. Tech. de Lille, 59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, France), J.C. Buriez et al., Rev. Geophys., 28(2), 145-166, May 1990.

Cloud representations in climate models will soon include condensed water as an additional prognostic value. Examines how simple parameterizations based on the liquid water content can realistically simulate the radiation field.

Item #d91jun49

"Adjusted NOAA Outgoing Long-Wave and Net Solar Irradiances," B.C. Weare (Dept. Land Resour., Univ. California, Davis CA 95616), A. Soong, Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 116(491A), 205-219, Jan. 1990. Compares data from the NOAA series satellites with those from Earth Radiation Budget radiometers aboard Nimbus 7 to derive correction factors.