From Regional Cloud-Albedo to a Global Albedo Footprint - Studying Aerosol Effects on the Radiation Budget Using the Relation Between Albedo and Cloud Fraction

Abstract:

Earth’s albedo is the primary determinant of the amount of energy absorbed by the Earth-atmosphere system. The main factor controlling albedo is the amount of clouds present, but aerosols can affect and alter both clear-sky and cloudy-sky reflectance. How albedo depends on cloud fraction and how albedo varies at a given cloud fraction and a given cloud water content, reveals information about these aerosol effects on the radiation budget. Hence, the relation between total albedo and cloud fraction can be used for illustration and quantification of aerosol effects, and as a diagnostic tool, to test model performance.

Here, we show examples of the utilisation of this relation focusing on satellite observations from CERES and MODIS on Aqua, as well as from Calipso and CloudSat, and performing comparisons with climate models on the way:

In low-cloud regions in the subtropics, we find that climate models well represent a near-constant regional cloud albedo, and this representation has improved from CMIP3 to CMIP5. CMIP5 models indicate more reflective clouds in present-day climate than pre-industrial, as a result of increased aerosol burdens. On monthly mean time scale, models are found to over-estimate the regional cloud-brightening due to aerosols.

On the global scale we find an increasing cloud albedo with increasing cloud fraction - a relation that is very well defined in observations, and less so in CMIP5 models. Cloud brightening from pre-industrial to present day is also seen on global scale.

Further, controlling for both cloud fraction and cloud water content we can trace small variations in albedo, or perturbations of solar reflectivity, that create a near-global coherent geographical pattern that is consistent with aerosol impacts on climate, with albedo enhancement in regions dominant of known aerosol sources and suppression of albedo in regions associated with high rates of aerosol removal (deduced using CloudSat precipitation estimates). This mapping can be done with CERES and MODIS over the ocean. Using the integrated attenuated backscatter from the Calipso lidar as a proxy for the atmospheric contribution to albedo, it can be extended to include land-covered areas, yielding a global picture of the albedo perturbation footprint.