Solar Radiation Budget from the MRI Radiometers for Clear and Cloudy Air Columns within ARESE II

Abstract

As an international collaborative research activity within the Japanese Cloud-Climate Study (JACCS) program, the authors participated in the second Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Enhanced Shortwave Experiment (ARESE II) using the Meteorological Research Institute (MRI) radiometers. This paper describes results of ARESE II, as well as specifications and calibration of the MRI radiometers. The solar radiation budget for 2 days of typical clear sky (27 February and 20 March 2000) and overcast sky (3 and 21 March 2000) has been analyzed using spatially collocated, total-band solar irradiances measured by the MRI pyranometers (Kipp & Zonen CM21). These were installed on a Twin Otter aircraft, and deployed at the ARM Southern Great Planes Central Facility site. On average, the clear-sky and overcast-sky air columns between the surface and the Twin Otter flight level of 7 km absorbed about 13% ± 2% and 20% ± 3%, respectively, of the total-band solar radiation incident on the column top. The measured solar radiation budgets agree well with those computed for models of clear and cloudy atmospheres. The present results indicate no evidence of anomalous solar absorption for either the clear- or cloudy-sky cases. It is suggested that about half of the observed absorption enhancement of 7% for the overcast-sky cases could be caused by the presence of larger water vapor, compared with the clear-sky cases, and that the other half could be caused by increased absorption within and above the rather low cloud layers.