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Cited by 89Atmospheric aerosols and cloudsMeteorological Phenomena and SimulationsRadiative Heat Transfer Studies

Solar radiation transport in the cloudy atmosphere: A 3D perspective on observations and climate impacts

Open access
Davis, Anthony B, Marshak, Alexander·2010·Reports on Progress in Physics
DOI 10.1088/0034-4885/73/2/026801
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Abstract

The interplay of sunlight with clouds is a ubiquitous and often pleasant visual experience, but it conjures up major challenges for weather, climate, environmental science and beyond.Those engaged in the characterization of clouds (and the clear air nearby) by remote sensing methods are even more confronted.The problem comes, on the one hand, from the spatial complexity of real clouds and, on the other hand, from the dominance of multiple scattering in the radiation transport.The former ingredient contrasts sharply with the still popular representation of clouds as homogeneous plane-parallel slabs for the purposes of radiative transfer computations.In typical cloud scenes the opposite asymptotic transport regimes of diffusion and ballistic propagation coexist.We survey the three-dimensional (3D) atmospheric radiative transfer literature over the past 50 years and identify three concurrent and intertwining thrusts: first, how to assess the damage (bias) caused by 3D effects in the operational 1D radiative transfer models?Second, how to mitigate this damage?Finally, can we exploit 3D radiative transfer phenomena to innovate observation methods and technologies?We quickly realize that the smallest scale resolved computationally or observationally may be artificial but is nonetheless a key quantity that separates the 3D radiative transfer solutions into two broad and complementary classes: stochastic and deterministic.Both approaches draw on classic and contemporary statistical, mathematical and computational physics.

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  • The assumption of radiance close to equilibrium usually does not reflect conditions in highly absorbing media such as microalgae cultures.

    “The assumption of radiance close to equilibrium usually does not reflect the conditions in highly absorbing media as microalgae cultures [220].”

    From Modeling and Simulation of Photobioreactors with Computational Fluid Dynamics—A Comprehensive Review (2022) · cites this paper as [220]

    Section 2.4.3 (page unavailable) says weak absorption favors the diffusion/P1 approximation and notes that its simplified radiance representation can fail. This supports caution about applying that approximation in highly absorbing media, but the paper discusses atmospheric clouds, not microalgae cultures, and does not establish that their radiance is usually far from equilibrium. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 33

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  20. Ueki T and Larsen E W 1996 Deterministic theory of Monte Carlo variance Trans. Am. Nucl. Soc. 75 133-5
  21. Evans K F 1993 Two-dimensional radiative transfer in cloudy atmospheres: the spherical harmonic spatial grid method J. Atmos. Sci. 50 3111-24 · DOI
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  25. Várnai T and Marshak A 2002 Observations of three-dimensional radiative effects that influence MODIS cloud optical thickness retrievals J. Atmos. Sci. 59 1607-18 · DOI
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  28. Petty G 2002 Area-average solar radiative transfer in three-dimensionally inhomogeneous clouds: the independently scattering cloudlet model J. Atmos. Sci. 59 2910-29 · DOI
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  32. Davis A B, Winker D M and Vaughan M A 2001 First retrievals of dense cloud properties from off-beam/multiple-scattering lidar data collected in space Laser Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere: Selected Papers from the 20th Int. Conf. on Laser Radar (ILRC 20), 9-14 July 2000 (Vichy, France) ed A Dabas and J Pelon (Palaiseau: École Polytechnique) pp 35-8
  33. Davis A B, Ho C and Love S P 1998 Off-beam (multiply-scattered) lidar returns from stratus: II. Space-time measurements in a laboratory simulation 19th Int. Laser Radar Conf. (ILRC 19) Proceedings (Annapolis, MD, 6-10 July 1998) ed

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Authors
Davis, A. B., & Marshak, A.
Affiliations
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory (US)
  • Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
ORCID
Venue
Reports on Progress in Physics
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Published
2010-01-19
Volume
73
Issue
2
Pages
026801
ISSN
  • 0034-4885 (ISSN-L)
  • 1361-6633
DOI
10.1088/0034-4885/73/2/026801
OpenAlex
W1965950155
Cited by
89
References
263
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 7
FWCI
6.91
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
Reports on Progress in Physics (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • U.S. Department of Energy
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • California Institute of Technology
  • Biological and Environmental Research
  • Laboratory Directed Research and Development
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Atmospheric aerosols and clouds
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Computational Mechanics › Radiative Heat Transfer Studies
Keywords
3D radiative transfer, cloudy atmospheres, multiple scattering, cloud radiative effects

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