Quantifying the Contribution of Different Cloud Types to the Radiation Budget in Southern West Africa

• DOI: 10.1175/jcli-d-17-0586.1
• Publication Date: 2018-03-26T15:29:46Z
• Authors: Peter G. Hill; Richard P. Allan; J. Christine Chiu; Alejandro Bodas-S...; Peter Knippertz
• Keywords: Shortwave; Cloud fraction; Shortwave radiation; Downwelling; Cloud forcing; Cloud top; Earth's energy budget; Cloud albedo

The contribution of cloud to the radiation budget southern West Africa (SWA) is poorly understood and yet it important for understanding regional monsoon evolution evaluating improving climate models, which have large biases in this region. Radiative transfer calculations applied atmospheric profiles obtained from CERES– CloudSat–CALIPSO–MODIS (CCCM) dataset are used investigate effects 12 different types (defined by their vertical structure) on energy SWA (5°–10°N, 8°W–8°E) during June–September. We show that mean radiative effect due nonnegligible contributions many types; eight a fraction larger than 5% contribute at least shortwave top atmosphere. Low clouds, observed passive satellite measurements, were found cause net cooling atmosphere, reduces heating other approximately 10%. sensitivity underestimating low-cloud cover also investigated. missing low be up −25 W m −2 upwelling irradiance atmosphere 35 downwelling surface.