Mean fluxes of solar radiation at different atmospheric levels are calculated by two different methods: (1) the approximate method (under the assumption of random cloud overlap) and (2) the method of closed equations based on the Monte Carlo solution of equations for mean intensity in two-layer broken clouds. Calculations are made for characteristic parameters of typical cloud systems (St)-(Ci), (St)-(As), (Cu)-(Ci), (Cu)- (As) at midlatitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. It is shown that, depending on the geometrical and optical cloud parameters, the difference in upward (at the upper boundary of the atmosphere) and downward scattered (at the level of the underlying surface) radiative fluxes between different calculation techniques varies from 5 - 10% in (St)-(Ci), (St)- (As) clouds to tens of percent at large solar zenith angles in (Cu)-(Ci), (Cu)-(As) clouds.

Date Published: 8 December 1999
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 3867, Satellite Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere IV, (8 December 1999); doi: 10.1117/12.373054

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3867:
Satellite Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere IV
Jaqueline E. Russell, Editor(s)