Retrievals of cloud optical depth and effective radius from Thin-Cloud Rotating Shadowband Radiometer measurements

A Thin‐Cloud Rotating Shadowband Radiometer (TCRSR) was developed and deployed in a field test at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility's Southern Great Plains site. The TCRSR measures the forward‐scattering lobe of the direct solar beam (i.e., the solar aureole) through an optically thin cloud (optical depth < 8). We applied the retrieval algorithm of Min and Duan (2005) to the TCRSR measurements of the solar aureole to derive simultaneously the cloud optical depth (COD) and cloud drop effective radius (DER), subsequently inferring the cloud liquid‐water path (LWP). After careful calibration and preprocessing, our results indicate that the TCRSR is able to retrieve simultaneously these three properties for optically thin water clouds. Colocated instruments, such as the MultiFilter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer (MFRSR), atmospheric emitted radiance interferometer (AERI), and Microwave Radiometer (MWR), are used to evaluate our retrieval results. The relative difference between retrieved CODs from the TCRSR and those from the MFRSR is less than 5%. The distribution of retrieved LWPs from the TCRSR is similar to those from the MWR and AERI. The differences between the TCRSR‐based retrieved DERs and those from the AERI are apparent in some time periods, and the uncertainties of the DER retrievals are discussed in detail in this article. Key Points TCRSR measures the forward‐scattering lobe of solar aureole through thin clouds TCRSR can retrieve simultaneously COD, Re, and LWP for thin water clouds The retrieved cloud properties showed agreement with other measurements