Radiation and Cloud Processes in the Atmosphere


Book Description

This is an up-to-date treatment of atmospheric science and the key roles of solar radiation and cloud layers.




Solar Radiation and Clouds


Book Description

The research reported in this monograph represents an attempt to explore the extreme values as well as the more probable values of the radiative characteristics of water and ice clouds in the solar wavelengths. It discusses topics such as monomodal drop size distributions, cloud thickness, cloud geometry, to the radiative characteristics of clouds and ice crystals.




An Introduction To Solar Radiation


Book Description

An Introduction to Solar Radiation is an introductory text on solar radiation, with emphasis on the methods of calculation for determining the amount of solar radiation incident on a surface on the earth. Topics covered include the astronomical relationship between the sun and the earth; thermal radiation; the solar constant and its spectral distribution; and extraterrestrial solar irradiation. This book is comprised of 12 chapters and begins with an overview of the trigonometric relationships between the sun-earth line and the position of an inclined surface, followed by a discussion on the characteristics of blackbody radiation. The next chapter focuses on the solar constant and its spectral distribution, paying particular attention to extraterrestrial solar spectral irradiance and the sun's blackbody temperature. Subsequent chapters explore extraterrestrial and radiation incident on inclined planes; the optics of a cloudless-sky atmosphere; solar spectral radiation and total (broadband) radiation under cloudless skies; and solar radiation arriving at horizontal surfaces on the earth through cloudy skies. The ground albedo and its spectral and angular variation are also described, along with insolation on inclined surfaces. The last chapter is devoted to instruments for measuring solar radiation, including pyrheliometers and pyranometers. This monograph will serve as a useful guide for energy analysts, designers of thermal devices, architects and engineers, agronomists, and hydrologists as well as senior graduate students.




Modeling Solar Radiation at the Earth's Surface


Book Description

Solar radiation data is important for a wide range of applications, e.g. in engineering, agriculture, health sector, and in many fields of the natural sciences. A few examples showing the diversity of applications may include: architecture and building design, e.g. air conditioning and cooling systems; solar heating system design and use; solar power generation; evaporation and irrigation; calculation of water requirements for crops; monitoring plant growth and disease control; skin cancer research.




Remote Sensing Digital Image Analysis


Book Description

With the widespread availability of satellite and aircraft remote sensing image data in digital form, and the ready access most remote sensing practitioners have to computing systems for image interpretation, there is a need to draw together the range of digital image processing procedures and methodologies commonly used in this field into a single treatment. It is the intention of this book to provide such a function, at a level meaningful to the non-specialist digital image analyst, but in sufficient detail that algorithm limitations, alternative procedures and current trends can be appreciated. Often the applications specialist in remote sensing wishing to make use of digital processing procedures has had to depend upon either the mathematically detailed treatments of image processing found in the electrical engineering and computer science literature, or the sometimes necessarily superficial treatments given in general texts on remote sensing. This book seeks to redress that situation. Both image enhancement and classification techniques are covered making the material relevant in those applications in which photointerpretation is used for information extraction and in those wherein information is obtained by classification.




Mixed-Phase Clouds


Book Description

Mixed-Phase Clouds: Observations and Modeling presents advanced research topics on mixed-phase clouds. As the societal impacts of extreme weather and its forecasting grow, there is a continuous need to refine atmospheric observations, techniques and numerical models. Understanding the role of clouds in the atmosphere is increasingly vital for current applications, such as prediction and prevention of aircraft icing, weather modification, and the assessment of the effects of cloud phase partition in climate models. This book provides the essential information needed to address these problems with a focus on current observations, simulations and applications. - Provides in-depth knowledge and simulation of mixed-phase clouds over many regions of Earth, explaining their role in weather and climate - Features current research examples and case studies, including those on advanced research methods from authors with experience in both academia and the industry - Discusses the latest advances in this subject area, providing the reader with access to best practices for remote sensing and numerical modeling




The Sun's Influence on Climate


Book Description

The Earth's climate system depends entirely on the Sun for its energy. Solar radiation warms the atmosphere and is fundamental to atmospheric composition, while the distribution of solar heating across the planet produces global wind patterns and contributes to the formation of clouds, storms, and rainfall. The Sun’s Influence on Climate provides an unparalleled introduction to this vitally important relationship. This accessible primer covers the basic properties of the Earth’s climate system, the structure and behavior of the Sun, and the absorption of solar radiation in the atmosphere. It explains how solar activity varies and how these variations affect the Earth’s environment, from long-term paleoclimate effects to century timescales in the context of human-induced climate change, and from signals of the 11-year sunspot cycle to the impacts of solar emissions on space weather in our planet’s upper atmosphere. Written by two of the leading authorities on the subject, The Sun’s Influence on Climate is an essential primer for students and nonspecialists alike.




Solar Radiation and Clouds


Book Description

The research reported in this monograph represents an attempt to explore the extreme values as well as the more probable values of the radiative characteristics of water and ice clouds in the solar wavelengths. It discusses topics such as monomodal drop size distributions, cloud thickness, cloud geometry, to the radiative characteristics of clouds and ice crystals.







Aerosol-Cloud-Climate Interactions


Book Description

Aerosol and clouds play important roles in determining the earth's climate, in ways that we are only beginning to comprehend. In conjunction with molecular scattering from gases, aerosol and clouds determine in part what fraction of solar radiation reaches the earth's surface, and what fraction of the longwave radiation from the earth escapes to space. This book provides an overview of the latest research on atmospheric aerosol and clouds and their effects on global climate. Subjects reviewed include the direct and indirect effects of aerosol on climate, the radiative properties of clouds and their effects on the Earth's radiation balance, the incorporation of cloud effects in numerical weather prediction models, and stratospheric aerosol and clouds.




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