Daniel Rosenfeld, Youtong Zheng, Eyal Hashimshoni, Mira L Pöhlker, Anne Jefferson, Christopher Pöhlker, Xing Yu, Yannian Zhu, Guihua Liu, Zhiguo Yue, Baruch Fischman, Zhanqing Li, David Giguzin, Tom Goren, Paulo Artaxo, Henrique M J Barbosa, Ulrich Pöschl, Meinrat O Andreae
Quantifying the aerosol/cloud-mediated radiative effect at a global scale requires simultaneous satellite retrievals of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations and cloud base updraft velocities (Wb). Hitherto, the inability to do so has been a major cause of high uncertainty regarding anthropogenic aerosol/cloud-mediated radiative forcing. This can be addressed by the emerging capability of estimating CCN and Wb of boundary layer convective clouds from an operational polar orbiting weather satellite...
May 24, 2016: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America