On the Consistency of Ice Cloud Optical Models for Spaceborne Remote Sensing Applications and Broadband Radiative Transfer Simulations

Abstract

Aqua satellite Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 1‐km observations are collocated with Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) fields of view taken during July 2008 afternoon satellite passes over the equatorial western Pacific Ocean. Radiation simulations are compared with collocated CERES observations to better understand the sensitivity of computed fluxes to two ice cloud broadband radiation parameterization schemes and inferred ice cloud characteristics. In particular, the radiation computational schemes and ice cloud property retrievals are based on two respective ice particle models, the MODIS Collection 6 (MC6) aggregate model and a more microphysically consistent two‐habit model (THM). The simulation results show that both MC6 and THM overestimate the shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) cloud radiative effects at the top of the atmosphere, as compared to the CERES observations; the difference between the MC6 and THM‐based ice cloud retrievals is too small to compensate for the differences between the two model‐based radiation schemes. Therefore, the present finding suggests that broadband radiative simulations are more sensitive to the radiation parameterization scheme than to the input cloud properties retrieved using the corresponding ice cloud particle optical property model.

Impact of Microphysics Parameterization Schemes on the Assimilation of GOES‐16 ABI All‐Sky Infrared Radiances for a Bow Echo Analysis and Prediction

“…Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 10.1029/2023JD040046 necessary for enhancing the consistency between microphysics schemes and the radiative transfer model in future studies. Such consistency can be achieved by developing new look-up tables, similar to previous studies that focused on microwave channels (Moradi et al, 2022;Ren et al, 2023;Sieron et al, 2017Sieron et al, , 2018. To efficiently update various scales, it is recommended to consider the utilization of the multiscale data assimilation (MDA) method, as suggested in previous studies (X.…”

“…r e ). It is noted that this approach, using the default CRTM look‐up table, is still limited compared to previous studies, which improved the consistency for microwave channels by constructing new tables based on identical particle size distributions (Sieron et al., 2017), mass‐size relationships (Ren et al., 2023), and particle shapes (Moradi et al., 2022; Sieron et al., 2018).…”

Weather‐Induced Satellite Orbit Perturbations

“…In weather models, the up‐welling radiation flux, that is, reflected solar radiation and thermal emission, is modeled with reasonable precision on average. Usually, the up‐welling radiation flux is relatively unbiased, but in the case of optically thick ice clouds, weather models tend to exhibit positive up‐welling shortwave radiation flux bias of tens of W/m 2 (see e.g., Ham et al., 2022; Ren et al., 2023). In relative terms, this bias equals roughly 10% of the flux.…”