Effects of cirrus clouds and the atmosphere over land and ocean surfaces

Derivation of surface brightness temperatures from satellite data requires knowledge of cloud properties, surface emissivity or reflectivity, and the atmospheric radiative profile. Radiative transfer modeling of clear-sky atmospheres using an automated correlated k distribution technique is validated by comparison with a discrete ordinate band model and a line-by-line model. The effects of cirrus clouds on the color of a Lambertian surface are presented for single- and multi-layer cirrus clouds. Cirrus cloud models using hexagonal ice crystals show significantly different effects from cloud models that use equivalent sphere approximations. Microphysical properties of cirrus clouds are bounded using complementary satellite, rawinsonde, and lidar data with radiative transfer model results