Description
A critical breakthrough in the measurement of radiation, this book shows how it is possible to measure changes in the net radiation at the top of the earth’s atmosphere by the earth’s changing levels of cloudiness. The authors show how satellite-radiation budget measurements may be converted into effective cloud parameters in order to study the variability of long-term global cloudiness. Their results will enable scientists to track large-scale redistributions of cloudiness.
Contents
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- Chapter 1
illustrates a number of problems that could be helped by current information on effective cloud parameters
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- Chapter 2
describes the satellite data from NOAA scanning radiometers (1974-1977) and Nimbus-7 ERB experiments (1979-1986) used in the book
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- Chapter 3
discusses the measurement of the effective cloud amount, and offers comparisons between existing total effective cloud amount estimates
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- Chapter 4
deals with effective cloud-top height estimates
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- Chapter 5
addresses cloud radiative forcing
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- Chapter 6
explores the empirical methods to study the sensitivity of the radiation-budget to cloud variations
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- Chapter 7
describes approximation and validation of cloud-amount frequency distributions
- Chapter 8
presents a simple method to obtain the monthly mean surface isolation
- Extensive Bibliography
- Subject Index
ISBN 0-937194-27-1, 1993, Hardcover, 212 pages
