Abstract
Estimating the impact of radiation transport through cloud sides on the global energy budget is hampered by the lack of a fast radiation scheme suitable for use in global atmospheric models that can represent these effects in both the shortwave and longwave. This two-part paper describes the development of such a scheme, which we refer to as the Speedy Algorithm for Radiative Transfer through Cloud Sides (SPARTACUS). The principle of the method is to add extra terms to the two-stream equations to represent lateral transport between clear and cloudy regions, which vary in proportion to the length of cloud edge as a function of height. The present paper describes a robust and accurate method for solving the coupled system of equations in both the shortwave and longwave in terms of matrix exponentials. This solver has been coupled to a correlated-k model for gas absorption. We then confirm the accuracy of SPARTACUS by performing broadband comparisons with fully 3-D radiation calculations by the Monte Carlo model MYSTIC for a cumulus cloud field, examining particularly the percentage change in cloud radiative effect (CRE) when 3-D effects are introduced. In the shortwave, SPARTACUS correctly captures this change to CRE, which varies with solar zenith angle between -25%and +120%. In the longwave, SPARTACUS captures well the increase in radiative cooling of the cloud, although it is only able to correctly simulate the 30% increase in surface CRE (around 4Wm(-2)) if an approximate correction is made for cloud clustering.
Item Type: | Journal article |
---|---|
Faculties: | Physics |
Subjects: | 500 Science > 530 Physics |
ISSN: | 2169-897X |
Language: | English |
Item ID: | 47491 |
Date Deposited: | 27. Apr 2018, 08:13 |
Last Modified: | 08. May 2024, 09:24 |