Radiative Characteristics of Clouds Measured from Satellites.

Abstract

The significant findings reported in this paper are: (1) Cirrus clouds are very common and were found in 42% of the satellite data. There are seasonal changes in the locations of the most frequent cirrus which follow seasonal changes in convective clouds. However, very thin cirrus occurred at least 10% of the time in all areas. The diurnal cycle of cirrus was very small over the oceans. The diurnal cycle over land followed the diurnal cycle of convective clouds. (2) A large increase in cirrus and high cloud frequency was found in 1991. This cloud cover increase appeared with the strong El Nino - Southern Oscillation climate event. A volcanic eruption also occurred in 1991 which may have enhanced this cloud cover change. It should be noted that the total cloud cover of all cloud forms did not change during this period. (AN)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 22, 1994
Accession Number
ADA296627

Entities

People

  • Donald P. Wylie

Organizations

  • University of Wisconsin–Madison

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Cirrus Clouds
  • Climate Change
  • Cloud Cover
  • Clouds
  • Geography
  • Measurement
  • North America
  • Optical Properties
  • Optics
  • Scattering
  • Sea Surface Temperature
  • Space Sciences
  • Surface Temperature
  • Topography

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science/Meteorology

Technology Areas

  • Space