A Global View of 3D Cloud Structure from a Decade of Space-borne Radar Measurements

Clouds influence the planet's energy and hydrological balance. Poorly resolved clouds in climate models produce an unacceptable discrepancy in the global heat and moisture transport. Robust studies quantifying the cloud in a 3-D observational framework is critical to resolve the aerosol-cloud-precipitation cycle and active remote sensing can prove to be very useful for this purpose. Here, we present the three dimensional global cloud climatology of individual cloud types using satellite based active radar measurement. We find that global mean cloud fractions of cumulus, stratocumulus-stratus (combined), altocumulus, altostratus, nimbostratus, cirrus and deep convective clouds from Cloudsat are 4.7%, 15.9%, 6.1%, 7.1%, 4.1%, 5.7% and 1.4% respectively. The work is expected to generate key strategic knowledge about characteristics of precipitating and non-precipitating clouds which will be useful to the modeling community trying to improve the climate models in the Indian monsoon region.