Temperature dependence of cirrus extinction - Implications for climate feedback

The sensitivities of changes in cirrus optical properties to the changes in global temperature were investigated using data obtained in previous extensive lidar and radiometer observations of cirrus clouds. It is demonstrated how the temperature dependence of cirrus optical properties can be used in climate sensitivity calculations to yield predictions of feedback effects at various cirrus temperatures and how these properties can be parameterized simply for use in the GCM or climate models.