Observations and Modeling of Clouds and Their Role in Climate

Dear Colleagues,

Observing clouds is essential for understanding the global water cycle, the Earth’s radiation budget and monitoring extreme weather events, and their distribution plays an important role in regulating our climate. Thanks to the development of a variety of observation tools such as infrared/visible and microwave sensors, radar, lidar, etc., climate researchers know how much of the Earth is covered by clouds, and they can improve their models and look for signs of climate change. An increase or decrease in the number and type of clouds could indicate that climatic feedback loops are at work, cooling or warming the planet. From space, satellites can only see the tops of clouds, and many clouds are smaller than the satellite's footprint. Uncertainty about cloud feedback in climate models is a major limitation in predicting future climate. Therefore, the evaluation and improvement of cloud simulation is essential to ensuring the accuracy of climate models. Multiple instruments carried by different platforms, e.g. vehicles, satellites, and ships, offer an unprecedented opportunity to observe clouds, with a synergy of observations and remote sensing technologies providing deep insights into the formation and evolution of clouds. To understand the complexity of clouds, a variety of algorithms for synergistic retrievals have been proposed and developed, e.g., remote sensing and in situ remote sensing, active and passive remote sensing, radar and lidar, and infrared and microwaves. This Special Issue focuses on recent advances in the remote sensing of clouds, including the development of algorithms and the comparison and evaluation of cloud products. Topics include the study of cloud physics, the prediction of weather extremes and the role of clouds in climate change, including machine learning to develop artificial neural networks.

Dr. Salvatore Larosa
Dr. Filomena Romano
Guest Editors

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• clouds
• cloud detection
• cloud classification
• microphysical-parameter clouds
• microphysical-parameter clouds
• microwave radiometers
• infrared radiometers
• cloud and climate
• cloud parametrization