干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

We investigate four scenarios for estimating shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) direct aerosol radiative forcing (DARF) at the top of atmosphere (TOA) using the global data set of the vertical distributions for aerosols and clouds of CALIPSO and CloudSat Level 2 products. One scenario is clear-sky (cloud-free) condition and three scenarios are cloudy-sky condition: the case that aerosols exists above clouds (AAC case), and the case that aerosols exist below high clouds such as cirrus, but without clouds below the aerosol layers (ABC case), and the case that aerosols are not observed in cloudy-sky condition. In clear-sky and ABC cases, aerosols mainly scatter sunlight and SWDARFs show negative values, except for bright surfaces, such as desert regions and the North and South Poles. In AAC case, aerosols absorb the reflected light from underlying low-level clouds to TOA, so that SWDARF at TOA shows positive value. Mineral dust absorbs the Earth's radiation and LWDARF indicates strong positive over Saharan and Arabian deserts. The global mean values of SW plus LW DARFs are -2.77, -0.77, and -1.40 Wm(-2) under clear-sky, cloudy-sky, and all-sky conditions.