Back to basics:

Clouds and the earth’s radiation budget

Paul F. Coley and Peter R. Jonas

Department of Physics, UMIST

This paper will introduce some of the key through their albedo and greenhouse proper-
influences that clouds have on the earth’s radia- ties. Albedo is defined as the fraction of the
tion budget. This work is a natural extension to incident sw energy which is reflected back to
recent ‘Back to basics’ articles by Jonas (1994) space. It can refer to the earth as a whole
and Bigg (1997). system, or just to the components of the system
such as the clouds or the earth’s surface. The
greenhouse effect concerns the ability of
Introduction to radiation
clouds, as well as certain atmospheric gases, to
Incoming short-wave (SW) radiation from the absorb and re-radiate LW radiation upwards
sun is concentrated between the wavelengths of and downwards, thus trapping part of the en-
0.1 and 6.0ym, with a large fraction of the ergy wi&in the earth-atmosphere system.
radiation occurring in the visible region of the Figure 1 shows a simplified sketch of the
electromagnetic spectrum. In contrast, the earth’s mean energy budget, in terms of the
long-wave (LW) terrestrial radiation emitted by energy transfer mechanisms within the
the earth’s surface and the atmosphere occurs atmosphere (per unit area of the earth’s sur-
at much longer wavelengths, between 3.0 and face). In both the SW and LW regions of the
100ym, in the infra-red. The lower tempera- spectrum, clouds can be seen to have a signifi-
ture of the earth, compared with that of the sun cant impact by reflecting, absorbing and emit-
(288K cf. 6000K) is the reason for the longer ting significant amounts of radiation. Because
wavelengths and lower energy of this radiation. the earth-atmosphere system is, on average, in
Wien’s law states that the wavelength of the thermal equilibrium, then at the top of the
peak in the radiant energy spectrum is inversely atmosphere the net incoming sw radiation
proportional to the absolute temperature of the (342-1M=236Wm-2) is equal to the outgoing
emitting object ( i e . hmax=2897/T(ym)).There LW radiation (236Wm-2). Figure 1 also shows
is little overlap between the two energy spectra, another significant energy transfer mechanism
so when considering atmospheric radiation it is associated with clouds - the transfer of latent
often convenient to consider the radiation and sensible heat from the earth’s surface to the
bands separately. The sw radiation undergoes troposphere. As moist air rises and cools to
considerable scattering, and small amounts of form cloud particles, latent heat is released
absorption, whilst for the LW radiation scatter- from the condensing or freezing water to the
ing is relatively unimportant, but absorption is surrounding air. Sensible heat refers to the
considerable. transfer of thermal energy from the earth’s
surface to the atmosphere. This is often in the
form of turbulent fluxes that may be associated
Cloud-radiation interactions
with rising cloud parcels.
On average, clouds cover approximately 50 per
cent of the earth’s surface and are important
Cloud albedo properties
components of the weather and climate sys-
tems. Clouds simultaneously have two oppos- On the most overcast day, the black-grey
ing effects on the earth’s radiation balance clouds as viewed from the ground appear a
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 SHORT WAVE LONG WAVE

Incoming solar radiahon ~ k i e by

d earth- Long wave emission
at top of atmosdwre atrnosdwresvstem TODof atmosDhere at top of atmcwhere

236 Ernissix fram

Absabed al surface Surface

164

Fig. 1 The mean global energy budget of the eanh-atmosphere system divided between the short-wave (SW) and long-
wave (LL@ radiation ( W m 3 . Although not shown in the diagramfor clarity, the upward ~ w f l ufrom
x the earth's surface
is 371 Wm-2 and the downward Lw flux to the su$ace from the atmosphere is 316Wm-2. This leaves a net
LW emissionfrom the earth's surface to the atmosphere and space of 55 Wm-2.

dazzling bright white when viewed from above. light is reflected back to space through the
The incident SW radiation that enters the top of additional influences of ground reflection and
the cloud is scattered many times by the cloud Rayleigh scattering (see Bigg 1997) by air mole-
droplets and ice crystals. Eventually, much of cules, giving the earth-atmosphere system an
the radiation leaves the cloud through the albedo of 0.3. This direct reflection of sw
upper surfaces, with much less radiation emer- radiation, before it can be absorbed at the
ging at the cloud base. The whiteness of the earth's surface, acts as a cooling influence to
clouds indicates that at visible wavelengths all the earth by reducing the energy available for
of the radiation (of all colours) is scattered in a heating and chemical processes. Calculations
similar manner, with little absorption. The suggest that increasing the cloud cover by a few
thickest clouds may reflect more than 80 per per cent has an effect on surface temperature
cent of the sunlight back to space, with much of comparable to that caused by doubling the
the radiation being scattered many tens or even concentration of carbon dioxide (CO,) if the
hundreds of times between individual cloud feedback between temperature and cloud cover
droplets and ice crystals. The mechanisms of is neglected. The clouds also scatter around 20
the scattering by these cloud particles fall under per cent of the incoming solar radiation down-
the general category of Mie scattering since the wards so that it reaches the surface, where it
cloud particles are much larger than the wave- may be absorbed as a diffise beam.
length of the radiation. Details have been given
in Bigg (1997).
Cloud greenhouse properties
Because clouds are efficient at reflecting the
sw radiation, and because they have extensive Water is a good absorber of infra-red radiation,
coverage, they are the main contributor to the whether it is in the liquid, vapour or solid state.
albedo of the earth-atmosphere system. Low- Most clouds are therefore almost totally
level stratiform clouds, which are typically opaque to all of the LW infra-red radiation
found over the oceans, are often extensive, emitted by the earth's surface below. They
covering thousands of square kilometres. These absorb the upwelling radiation and prevent it
clouds are therefore found to be excellent re- from directly escaping to space. Kirchhoff s law
flectors of sw radiation. On a global average, states that objects that absorb radiation also
clouds reflect back to space more than 20 per emit radiation and therefore clouds also emit
cent of all the incident SW radiation. In total, radiation. The amount of radiation that clouds
approximately 30 per cent of the incident sun- (or any other objects) emit is a function of their

67
temperature. Warmer clouds emit more radia- clouds on the radiation. It can be seen that
tion than cooler clouds, with the amount of there is significant cooling in both hemispheres
radiation emitted being proportional to T4, by expensive, low, dense clouds particularly
where T is the absolute temperature (Stefan- over fie oceans where semi-permanent sheets
Boltzmann law*). Because temperature de- of stratocumulus clouds are often observed. Off
creases with altitude at an approximate rate of the western coasts of Africa and South America
10degCkm-’, clouds are almost always cooler there is a large net cooling by the clouds of
than the surface below and correspondingly around 100Wm-2. Thin cirrus clouds over the
emit less radiation upwards to space and down- equatbr and deserts produce a net local warm-
wards towards the surface than is emitted up- ing of up to 25Wm-2. Deep frontal cloud
wards by the surface. The emitted radiation is, systems at mid-latitudes have a cooling effect,
however, still within the 1-b’ region of the while in polar regions the underlying surface
spectrum. This is the essence of the greenhouse has a high albedo compared with the thin
effect of clouds. By absorbing LW radiation clouds, so clouds tend to warm the surface.
from the warmer ground below and emitting a
smaller amount upwards, energy is trapped
Clouds and climate change
within the earth-atmosphere system. Low-level
clouds have temperatures little different from Any change in the earth’s climate, for example
the surface below and emit similarly. These global warming due to increased CO,
clouds, therefore, have little influence on the concentrations, is likely to have an impact on
LW radiation emitted by the earth-atmosphere the cloud system. An increase in the tempera-
system to space. High-level clouds such as ture of the atmosphere would probably lead to
cirrus clouds, in contrast, can have tempera- more evaporation at the surface and hence to
tures many tens of degrees lower than the increases in the amount of water vapour in the
surface temperature; they emit less radiation to atmosphere. This by itself would amplify the
space and, therefore , have large greenhouse temperature increase, because water vapour is
influences. the dominant greenhouse gas. However, it is
probable that an increase in atmospheric water
vapour would increase the fraction of the earth
Net effect of clouds on radiation
covered by cloud and also the thickness of the
In terms of climate, thorefore, the important clouds themselves. If the ratio of low to high
question is: “What is the net effect of clouds on clouds remains constant, then due to the domi-
the radiation budget? Do clouds have a net nance of the albedo effect compared to the
warming or a net cooling influence?” Recent greenhouse effect this would reduce the sw
satellite measurements have shown that, heating, helping to offset the original tempera-
globally, the albedo properties of clouds out- ture rise. Likewise, any temperature reduction
weigh their greenhouse properties. On average, of the atmosphere would be likely to lead to
clouds have been found to have a net cooling fewer, less thick clouds, which would tend to
influence to the earth of about 17Wm.’ offset the original temperature decrease. This
(Harrison t’r al. 1990). On a local level, there potential temperature-regulating property of
are strong regional and seasonal variations in clouds is described as a negative feedback
the influence of clouds on the radiation budget. mechanism and it may help to stabilise the
Figure 2 shows the effects of clouds obtained earth’s temperature. However, this argument is
from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment, dependent on the efficiency of the precipitation
averaged over the month of September. The processes, which determine the residence time
figure shows the effect of the clouds on the SV” of the water in the atmosphere, remaining
and L\x: radiation and the net effect of the unchanged, as well as the spatial distribution of
the clouds.
Within clouds, droplets form on small, sub-
* The total flux (Wm-’) emitted by an object is micrometre sized aerosol particles (Jonas
given by F=5.67 x 10 8 7 4 . 1994). Increases in the number of aerosol parti-
68
 0 9M 180

SON

45N

45s

0 90E 180 POW

I^\ MNI

0 WE i80 9OW
Fig. 2 The effect ofthe clouds Uorcing;)on (a) the short-wave (SW) flux, (b) the long-wave (LW) flux, and (c) the net
effect on the radiative flux (Ww2). The results are from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment and are averaged over
the month ofSeptember. The grey regions have a forcing of-50 to 0 Wm-2, light grey regions 0 to 50 Wm-2, and dark grey
regions >_FOWW~for the ~ w p l o andt ~ the sw and net plots. White areas are regions for which no
~ - 5 0 W m -for
information is available. (Courtesy of A . Sling0 and M . Webb, Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research,
Meteorological Office.)

cles, whether due to natural causes or through several thousand per cubic centimetre. Clouds
human activities, increase the number of cloud with higher droplet concentrations, but equal
droplets and reduce their mean size. For exam- amounts of water, are effectively ‘thicker’ to the
ple, clean oceanic clouds, away from land sw radiation, due to the enhanced scattering by
masses and sources of pollution, can contain cloud particles. They are described as having a
just a few tens of cloud droplets per cubic larger optical depth and have larger albedos.
centirnetre, or even fewer in the remote South- There is relatively little effect on the LW radia-
em Ocean. In contrast, over heavily polluted tion. Clean, maritime clouds over the Southern
industrial areas the concentrations can be Ocean are particularly sensitive to this effect,
69
 E

0.2

n n L
w.w
1 ILL
1 10 100 lo00 10 000
Drop concentration acrn-3)
Fig. 3 Calculated cloud rejlectrvity (ulbedo) us a function of droplet concentrationfor idealised cloud layers SO and 500m
deep. The liquid water content of the cloud layers is assumed to increase adiabatically with height fiom a cloud base at
9SOmbar and 5°C.

because the change in the albedo with droplet and greenhouse effects. Low-level clouds are
concentration, N , is generally proportional to good reflectors of solar radiation, cooling the
1/N and therefore larger for low N clouds earth, whilst high-level clouds have pro-
(Twomey 1991). As an example of this cloud nounced greenhouse properties, warming the
susceptibility effect, Fig. 3 shows calculated earth. Overall, the effect of clouds is to cool the
cloud reflectivity (albedo) plotted against drop- earth, Eeducing the surface temperature. In the
let concentration for idealised clouds. Similar future, climate change may produce a warmer
results have been obtained for stratocumulus and potentially wetter atmosphere. Resultant
cloud fields measured by the Meteorological changes in cloud amount and composition may
Research Flight C-130 aircraft (Taylor and help to mask the temperature increase due to
McHaffie 1994). From Fig. 3 it can be seen the dominance of the cloud albedo effect.
that the albedo asymptotically reached a maxi-
mum for the particular cloud field as the drop- References
let concentration increases and that there is a Bigg, G. R. (1997) Back to basics: Light in the at-
rapid increase in albedo for small droplet con- mosphere: Part 1 - Why the sky is blue. Weather, 52,
centrations (the l/N effect). It is currently pp. 72-77
believed that the aerosol particles injected into Harrison, E. F., Minnis, P., Barkstrom, B. R.,
the atmosphere by human activities, and conse- Ramanathan, V., Cess, R D. and Gibson, G. G.
(1990) Seasonal variation of cloud radiative forcing
quently incorporated into the clouds since the derived from the Earth Radiation Budget.3. Ge&ys.
industrial revolution, have helped to reduce any Res., 95,pp. 18687-18703
temperature increases caused by the accom- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (1996)
panying increased concentrations of green- Climate change 1995: The science of climate change.
house gases (Intergovernmental Panel on Cambridge University Press
Jonas, P. R. (1994) Back to basics: Why do clouds
Climate Change 1996) both by this indirect form? Weather, 49,pp. 176-180
effect and by increased direct scattering of sw Taylor, J. P. and McHaflie, A. (1994) Measurements of
radiation by the aerosol particles themselves. cloud susceptibility. J. Armos. Sc.,51, pp. 1298-1306
Twomey, S. (1991) Aerosols, clouds and radiation.
Atmos. Envim., 25A, pp. 2435-2442
Conclusions -~ ~

Correspondence to: Prof. P. R. Jonas, Department of

Clouds have a very extensive influence on the Physics, UMST, Po Box 88, Manchester
earth’s radiation budget through their albedo ~ 6 ~0Q D .

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