Uncertainties in space-based estimates of clouds and precipitation: implications for deriving global diabatic heating
type: CreativeWork
description: The Earth's weather and climate is driven by the exchange of energy between the sun, atmosphere, surface, and space and energy transport required to establish a global balance. Clouds and precipitation play an integral role in this exchange, enhancing reflection of solar radiation to space, trapping thermal emission from the surface, and providing a mechanism for the direct transfer of energy to the atmosphere through the release of latent heat in precipitation. As a result, there is an intimate coupling between the climate, energy budget, and global hydrologic cycle. The problem of establishing observational evidence for these connections and climate change in general, poses a significant challenge to the observational community. This dissertation seeks to address the components of this problem related to observing the hydrologic cycle and its role in modulating the tropical energy budget, from space-based measurements. This work reports on a new technique which makes use of cloud and precipitation information from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission to estimate the principal components of the tropical energy budget and to examine the mechanisms by which clouds and precipitation modify it. First, three distinct retrieval algorithms are employed to determine the three-dimensional structure of cloud and precipitation in the tropical atmosphere. The first retrieves cloud and precipitation profiles from passive microwave observations from the TRMM Microwave Imager while the second applies a different technique to the same observations in an effort to derive estimates of non-precipitating liquid cloud. Finally, the third algorithm makes use of infrared radiances from the Visible and Infrared Scanner to infer ice cloud optical properties in non-precipitating regions. The resulting representation of the three-dimensional structure of cloud and precipitation in the tropical atmosphere is then used as input to a broadband radiative transfer model to derive profiles of s…
abstract: The Earth's weather and climate is driven by the exchange of energy between the sun, atmosphere, surface, and space and energy transport required to establish a global balance. Clouds and precipitation play an integral role in this exchange, enhancing reflection of solar radiation to space, trapping thermal emission from the surface, and providing a mechanism for the direct transfer of energy to the atmosphere through the release of latent heat in precipitation. As a result, there is an intimate coupling between the climate, energy budget, and global hydrologic cycle. The problem of establishing observational evidence for these connections and climate change in general, poses a significant challenge to the observational community. This dissertation seeks to address the components of this problem related to observing the hydrologic cycle and its role in modulating the tropical energy budget, from space-based measurements. This work reports on a new technique which makes use of cloud and precipitation information from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission to estimate the principal components of the tropical energy budget and to examine the mechanisms by which clouds and precipitation modify it. First, three distinct retrieval algorithms are employed to determine the three-dimensional structure of cloud and precipitation in the tropical atmosphere. The first retrieves cloud and precipitation profiles from passive microwave observations from the TRMM Microwave Imager while the second applies a different technique to the same observations in an effort to derive estimates of non-precipitating liquid cloud. Finally, the third algorithm makes use of infrared radiances from the Visible and Infrared Scanner to infer ice cloud optical properties in non-precipitating regions. The resulting representation of the three-dimensional structure of cloud and precipitation in the tropical atmosphere is then used as input to a broadband radiative transfer model to derive profiles of s…
author: L'Ecuyer, Tristan S., author
author: Stephens, G. L., advisor
author: Rutledge, S. A., committee member
author: Kummerow, C. D., committee member
author: Bringi, V. N., committee member
language: eng
language: English
keywords: atmosphere
date published: 2001
date modified: 2026-07-27T19:13:18Z
provider: Colorado State University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Colorado State University. Libraries

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/10217/244399

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.25675/3.026994