VOCALS: Cloud Remote Sensing in Support of VOCAL-REx: Linking Cloud Optical Properties to Aerosol and Precipitation Variability

东南太平洋被世界上最大的亚热带层积云覆盖，很少有人观测到。 气候模型对这些云的模拟很差，这对全球气候敏感性和大气颗粒物如何影响气候的模型模拟产生了影响。 虽然这些模拟正在改进，但由于对关键物理过程（如云、气溶胶和毛毛雨的相互作用）的理解存在差距，对云和粒子的更好的模型处理受到限制。 该项目的观测和分析是对VAMOS海洋-云-大气-陆地研究区域实验VOCALS-REx的贡献，该实验是一项实地测量、分析和建模计划，旨在解决这些差距。 （VAMOS是一个国际科学项目，美国季风系统的可变性。该项目侧重于云遥感，将云的光学特性与底层气溶胶和毛毛雨的变化联系起来。 云液态水路径（LWPs）将使用部署在NSF C-130飞机上的微波辐射计的数据进行检索。 这些测量是VOCALS-REx的重要组成部分。 云LWP可以说是海洋上空低云最重要的参数：它们影响云反射回太空的阳光量，并且它们对于确定粒子对云和降水的影响至关重要。 云LWP是模型和观测之间最常比较的变量。 这种微波辐射计将提供更高的精度比以前可能为低纬度层积云LWP retrieval。更广泛的影响，这项工作是在支持智利研究生的博士论文工作。 Zuidema和研究生将参加“宇宙之窗”VOCALS教育和外展计划，Zuidema将在她位于伊利诺伊州厄巴纳的阿尔马母校参加高中科学课程，那里的学生主要来自低收入家庭。

The sparsely observed Southeast Pacific Ocean is covered by the world's largest subtropical sheet of stratocumulus clouds. Climate models poorly simulate these clouds, with consequences for the global climate sensitivity and for model simulations of how atmospheric particles affect the climate. While these simulations are improving, better model treatments of clouds and particles are limited by gaps in the understanding of key physical processes, such as the interactions of clouds, aerosols, and drizzle. The observations and analyses in this project are contributions to VOCALS-REx, the VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Regional Experiment, a program of field measurements, analysis, and modeling, intended to address these gaps. (VAMOS is an international science project, the Variability of the American Monsoon System.)This project focuses on cloud remote sensing that links cloud optical properties to the underlying aerosol and drizzle variability. Cloud liquid water paths (LWPs) will be retrieved using data from a microwave radiometer deployed on the NSF C-130 aircraft. These measurements are an essential part of VOCALS-REx. Cloud LWPs are arguably the most important parameter for low clouds over the ocean: they affect how much sunlight the clouds reflect back to space, and they are crucial to identifying the effects of particles on clouds and precipitation. Cloud LWP is the variable most commonly compared between models and observations. This microwave radiometer will provide LWP retrievals of higher accuracy than has previously been possible for low-latitude stratocumulus clouds.Broader impacts of this work are in supporting the PhD thesis work of a Chilean graduate student. Zuidema and the graduate student will participate in the "Windows to the Universe" VOCALS education and outreach program, and Zuidema will engage with high-school science classes at her alma mater in Urbana, Illinois, which has a predominantly lower-income student population.