[1] A parameterization for broadband snow surface albedo, based on snow grain size evolution, cloud optical thickness, and solar zenith angle, is implemented into a regional climate model for Antarctica and validated against field observations of albedo for the period 1995–2004. Over the Antarctic continent, modeled snow grain size exhibits expected behavior. The agreement between modeled and o...

SouthernWest Africa (SWA) has a large population that relies on highly variablemonsoon rainfall, yet climate models show little consensus over projected precipitation in this region. Understanding of the current and future climate of SWA is further complicated by rapidly increasing anthropogenic emissions and a lack of surface observations. Using multiple satellite observations, the ERA-Interim...

[1] Most standard air temperature measurements are subject to significant errors mainly due to sensor heating by solar radiation, even when the measurement principle is accurate and precise. We present various air temperature measurements together with other measurements of meteorological parameters using different sensor systems at a snow-covered and a vegetated site. Measurements from natural...

Low stratiform clouds have profound impacts on the hydrological cycle and Earth’s radiation budget. However, realistic simulation of low in climate models presents a major challenge. Here we employ newly retrieved cloud drizzle microphysical properties to improve autoconversion accretion parameterizations scheme. We find that new (accretion) rate contributes 14% lower (greater) total water cont...

We use a large ensemble of simulations from the Community Earth System Model to quantify simulated changes in the twentieth and twenty-first century Arctic surface shortwave heating associated with changing incoming solar radiation and changing ice conditions. For increases in shortwave absorption associated with albedo reductions, the relative influence of changing sea ice surface properties a...

Net radiation is a key component of the energy balance, whose estimation accuracy has an impact on energy flux estimates from satellite data. In typical remote sensing evapotranspiration (ET) algorithms, the outgoing shortwave and longwave components of net radiation are obtained from remote sensing data, while the incoming shortwave ( S) and longwave ( L) components are typically estimated fro...