The Relation between Cumulus Albedo and Extinction Coefficient and Its Application to Remote Sensing

Abstract

An analytic model of three-dimensional radiative transfer is modified to include cloud-cloud interactions and finite surface albedo. The spectrally integrated output is used to derive extinction coefficients for cumulus clouds from aircraft observations of cloud albedo and directional reflectance. Four independent estimates of extinction coefficient are compared for various actual and postulated boundary conditions. Surface albedo is found to be an important parameter. Results suggest it is possible to remotely detect microphysical differences between clouds growing in different air masses using broad-band measurements.