Time evolution of cloud fields from ISCCP observationsThe time series of 280 km regional cloud amounts to characterize the evolution of the cloud fields is presented. New observations from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) allow use of this data to attack the problem of simulating clouds and cloud changes from purely an empirical approach. It is shown that both persistence of cloud and cloud lifetimes indicate very long time scales to 40 hours for lifetime and weeks for persistent cloud systems. The simulation of these effects in GCM's requires more than attempting to simulate the variations of individual cloud elements. The tropical regions over the oceans show shorter lifetimes because there are basically local controls to the presence of clouds.
Document ID
19900043114
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Campbell, G. G. (Cooperative Inst. for Research in the Atmosphere Fort Collins, CO, United States)
Vonder Haar, T. H. (Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere Fort Collins, CO, United States)
Date Acquired
August 14, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1989
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Meeting Information
Meeting: Conference on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography