Solar Radiative Transfer for Wind-Sheared Cumulus Cloud Fields

The Monte Carlo method of photon transport was used to simulate solar radiative transfer for cumulus-like cloud forms (and cloud fields) possessing structural characteristics similar to those induced by wind shear. Using regular infinite arrays of finite, slanted-cuboidal clouds (parallelepipeds), it was demonstrated that the magnitude of cloud field albedo variation as a function of relative solar azimuth angle (up to 40% of albedo) can be larger than the albedo disparities between plane-parallel clouds and fields of nonsheared finite clouds. In general, cloud field albedo is maximized when shearing is away from the sun and minimized when shearing is toward the sun. This is explained by changes in effective cloud fraction presented to the direct solar beam. The albedo of individual clouds, on the other hand, is maximized when shearing is toward the sun, especially when shearing angle equals solar zenith angle. This is because of both reduced irradiance onto cloud sides and enhanced effective optical depth of cloud. These results were corroborated by conducting similar experiments using realistic cloud forms generated by a dynamical/microphysical cloud model. The magnitude of albedo differences between sheared and corresponding nonsheared broken clouds reached 25% of the albedo. Again, this is due to differing effective cloud fractions and side illumination. It was found that the bidirectional reflectance functions (BDRFs) of sheared clouds are sensitive to solar azimuth angle. Relative differences between BDRFs for clouds sheared toward and away from the sun can be as large as 50% for arrays of idealized parallelepiped clouds and 25% for more realistic clouds. Differences are minimized when viewing is perpendicular to the wind shear direction provided clouds are sheared toward or away from the sun. BDRFs for sheared clouds are much more asymmetric near the zenith than BDRFs for corresponding cubic (nonsheared) clouds. Hence, viewing sheared clouds at a 60° zenith angle will not necessarily provide least biased estimates of cloud field albedo as is the case for nonsheared clouds. Finally, it was demonstrated that BDRF differences arising from use of Mie and Henyey–Greenstein phase functions are substantially smaller than differences associated with varying solar azimuth angle.