SCIENTIFIC JUSTIFICATION
- Global cloud properties, particularly of cirrus clouds, are crucial
to improving the accuracy of Global Circulation Model predictions
of climate change due to greenhouse gases
- There has been an apparent increase in total cirrus cloud
amounts. Although part of this is due to an improvement in spatial resolution and technique, part of this increase appears to be due to aircraft contrails
- An increase in globally averaged cloud-top height of 1km is estimated
to result in ~1.2K increase in surface temperature
- Existing cloud-top heighting techniques can reach accuracies of 0.5 km
only which is insufficient to detect a global increase in cloud-top height
- Existing cloud cover products ignore much thin cirrus and broken clouds
as the highest spatial resolution is only 25 km
- New sensors and techniques offer the potential to improve both the
accuracy of cloud-top products, their spatial resolution and an
understanding of any increase in cirrus
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k.mitchell@ge.ucl.ac.uk
Last modified: 26th August 1999