The Variation of Radiative Equilibrium Temperatures with the Ice Crystal Habits and Sizes in Cirrus Clouds

The single-scattering optical properties of ice crystals in cirrus clouds by the aircraft measurement data were investigated, and the radiative equilibrium temperatures and radiative fluxes were calculated and analyzed by radiative convective model with the variations of ice crystal habits and sizes in cirrus clouds. The homogeneous cloud is assumed to be in the layer 200 similar to 260 hPa with an ice crystal content of 10 gm(-2) for the flux calculation. The profiles of temperature, humidity, and ozone typical of mid-latitude summer are used. The surface albedo is assumed to be 0.2 for all spectral bands and the cosine of solar zenith angles is 0.5. The result of radiative equilibrium temperature at surface was less than surface temperature of the standard atmosphere data in case of smaller effective ice crystal size and larger optical thickness. The column, aggregation and plate in 6 ice crystal habits were the most effective in positive greenhouse effect and bullet-4 was the worst in it. At the surface, the maximum difference of equilibrium temperature by 6 kinds of ice crystal habits were about 3 similar to 15 K with 30 sample aircraft measurement data.