RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Impact of cloud presence on sky radiances and the retrieval of aerosol properties
A1 Herrero-Anta, Sara
A1 Román, Roberto
A1 González-Fernández, Daniel
A1 Emde, Claudia
A1 Mateos, David
A1 del Barrio, Celia Herrero
A1 González, Ramiro
A1 Dubovik, Oleg
A1 Toledano, Carlos
A1 Calle, Abel
A1 Cachorro, Victoria E.
A1 Mayer, Bernhard
A1 de Frutos, Ángel M.
K1 Aerosols
K1 2501 Ciencias de la Atmósfera
AB This paper explores the influence of the presence of clouds on sky radiances. It also analyses their impact on the retrieval of aerosol properties when using an inversion algorithm whose radiative transfer model (RTM) is designed for cloud-free atmospheres. For that, synthetic observations are simulated for 9 partially cloudy skies and for their equivalent cloud-free skies, considering 16 different aerosol scenarios. A parameter named cloud enhancement factor (CEF) has been used to determine the modifications induced in the sky radiances by each partially cloudy scenario with respect to the cloud-free sky. This parameter indicates that the sky radiances remaining after applying a cloud-screening are affected by the presence of clouds. In general, they show en-hancements between 0 and 20 % with respect to the cloud-free radiances, depending on the cloudy conditions and the scattering angle. The synthetic observations used as input for the retrieval of aerosol properties are the ones required by the inversion strategy used, GRASPpac: the aerosol optical depth (AOD) and sky radiances at 4 different wavelengths together with the ceilometer range corrected signal (RCS). In partially cloudy scenarios with low CEFs, the aerosol properties do not present significant changes with respect to the cloud-free conditions. However, for partially cloudy scenarios with higher CEFs, a clear differentiation between the aerosol optical properties retrieved with and without clouds is observed. In these scenarios, the precision of the retrieval is similar for both conditions, but the accuracy is lower for the cloudy conditions. In particular, under partially cloudy conditions, it is observed an overestimation of the real refractive index (RRI) and the single scattering albedo (SSA) between 0.05 and 0.06 and between 0.03 and 0.06 respectively, and an underestimation of the asymmetry factor (g) and the imaginary refractive index (IRI) of about -0.02 and - 0.005, respectively. These values slightly vary with the aerosol load and wavelength for the RRI and SSA. The effects on the size distribution parameters are very small, concluding that the impact of clouds is noticeable in the optical properties but not so much in the microphysical part.
PB ELSEVIER
SN 0169-8095
YR 2025
FD 2025
LK https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/82294
UL https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/82294
LA spa
NO Atmospheric Research,2025, vol 317, 107938
NO Producción Científica
DS UVaDOC
RD 29-ene-2026