Bidirectional Reflectances for Non-homogeneous Clouds: A Spectral Analysis and Scale Break

Titov, G.A., Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Eighth Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Science Team Meeting

The realistic fractal model of stratocumulus clouds and 3D Monte Carlo technique are exploited to study energy spectra of bidirectional reflectances into different cones of angular width. Specifically, we focus on the effect of geometrical averaging caused by finite field-of-view (FOV) of real instruments. At small FOV (<10-150), energy spectra of bidirectional reflectances have no scale break and closely resemble those of optical depth. Albedo spectra have scale break, which can be explained successfully by the use of the effect of geometrical averaging.