Microphysical and radiative properties of boundary layer stratiform clouds deduced from ground‐based measurements

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Abstract
Two methods for retrieving the microphysical and radiative properties of marine and continental boundary layer stratiform clouds from ground‐based measurements are implemented. The first method uses measurements of the cloud liquid water path and the cloud nadir radiance at 1 μm to infer the cloud optical depth, cloud droplet effective radius, and cloud droplet concentration. In the second method a −3) than in continental clouds (500 cm−3). The retrieved cloud droplet effective radius had a strong negative correlation with the cloud droplet concentration. The effects of uncertainties in the measurements, the cloud droplet distribution width, and the surface albedo on the retrieved properties were evaluated by using the 52‐stream model. The errors in the retrieved cloud radiative properties were generally less than 5%, while the errors in the retrieved cloud microphysical properties were considerably larger.

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