Abstract

Cirrus clouds are important modulators of radiative transfer in the atmosphere. The processes that form cirrus and the resulting radiative properties must be properly understood to model climate correctly. Bulk properties (such as optical depth, fractional cover, and cloud temperature) as well as microphysical properties (such as particle effective radius and ice water content) are important to radiative transfer. Knowledge about many of these parameters and the relationships between them are still inadequate for satisfactory parameterizations in general circulation models.

© 1995 Optical Society of America