{"id":334627,"date":"2024-06-26T08:29:50","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T06:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=334627"},"modified":"2024-06-26T08:29:52","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T06:29:52","slug":"scientists-admit-cloud-radiative-properties-are-3d-but-studies-ignore-this-and-use-1d-simulation-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=334627","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Admit Cloud Radiative Properties Are 3D But Studies \u2018Ignore\u2019 This And Use 1D Simulation Data"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From NoTricksZone<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Kenneth Richard<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modeling the main factors driving climate is riddled with and precluded by observational error. Some scientists now acknowledge this.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clouds are a main factor \u2013 even the \u201cmost important factor\u201d \u2013 controlling changes in the Earth\u2019s radiation budget, or climate (Sf\u00eec\u0103\u00a0et al., 2021<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Lenaerts et al., 2020<\/a><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image Source:\u00a0Sf\u00eec\u0103\u00a0et al., 2021<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Lenaerts et al., 2020<\/a><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But as scientists acknowledge in a new study (Ademakinwa et al., 2024<\/a><\/strong>), substantial errors in calculating cloud effects on climate are inevitable because three-dimensional (3D, vertical and horizontal) cloud affects are reality, and current calculations only consider one-dimensional cloud properties (1D, vertical).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFailed retrievals\u201d in radiative property simulations of cloud effects occur over 40% of the time. This leads to biases, errors amounting to \u00b136 W\/m\u00b2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering this error margin of 72 W\/m\u00b2 is 360 times larger than the total forcing from CO2 over the span of 10 years (0.2 W\/m\u00b2) for an imaginary clear-sky-only (cloudless) Earth (Feldman et al., 2015<\/a><\/strong>), it is not possible to detect the real-world effect of CO2 forcing in any radiative transfer calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summary:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince clouds in reality have three-dimensional (3D) structures, the simulation of radiative transfer (RT) in clouds should ideally consider the transport of radiation in both vertical and horizontal directions (referred to as \u20183D RT\u2019).\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, \u201coperational bispectral cloud retrievals are almost exclusively based on the one-dimensional (1D) RT theory that considers only the vertical and ignores the net horizontal transport of radiation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consequently, \u201cthe radiative properties of clouds under 3D RT are substantially different from those under 1D RT.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image Source:\u00a0Ademakinwa et al., 2024<\/a><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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