An assessment of macrophysical and microphysical cloud properties driving radiative forcing of shallow trade-wind clouds
Abstract. The clouds in the Atlantic trade-wind region are known to have an important role in the global climate system. Acquiring a comprehensive characterization of these clouds based on observations is a challenge, but it is a necessary piece of information for the evaluation of their representation in models. An exploration of how the macrophysical and microphysical cloud properties and organization of the cloud field impact the large-scale cloud radiative forcing is presented here. Direct measurements of the cloud radiative effects from the Broadband AirCrAft RaDiometer Instrumentation (BACARDI) on board the High Altitude and LOng Range Research Aircraft (HALO) and cloud observations from the GOES-16 satellite during the Elucidating the role of clouds-circulation coupling in climate (EUREC4A) campaign provide evidence to demonstrate what drives the cloud radiative effects in shallow trade-wind clouds. We find that the solar and terrestrial radiative effects of these clouds are largely driven by their macrophysical properties (cloud fraction and a scene-averaged liquid water path). However, we also conclude that the microphysical properties, cloud top height and the organization of the cloud field demonstrate an increasing relevance in determining the cloud radiative effects as the cloud fraction increases.