Remote Sensing of Aerosol–Cloud–Radiation Interactions and Quantifying Their Impact on Earth’s Energy Budget

Dear Colleagues,

Clouds and aerosols remain persistent sources of large uncertainties in climate change projections. Their processes span scales from micrometers to mesoscale structures, interact with radiation to drive atmospheric heating and cooling, and modulate Earth’s top-of-atmosphere radiative fluxes. These radiative effects, in turn, influence variability across larger scales, from synoptic to hemispheric and global scales.

Capturing these multiscale processes requires global observations that provide a large-scale perspective with statistical robustness. Moreover, the distinct interactions of aerosols and clouds with radiation make remote sensing an indispensable tool for advancing aerosol–cloud–radiation research. A major source of complexity in aerosol–cloud systems arise from their coupled microphysical and radiative interactions. Aerosol effects on cloud properties have received substantial attention; however, the system is intrinsically bidirectional, as clouds modify aerosol microphysical properties and apparent radiative signal through chemical and physical processing and 3D radiative transfer.

Examples of such interactions include the suppression of cloud development by light-absorbing aerosols and a recent theory in which diffuse radiation driven by aerosol above clouds enhances cloud albedo with implications for climate intervention. Furthermore, the distinction between aerosols and clouds is ambiguous in the aerosol–cloud transition zone, which was recently shown to exert radiative effects comparable to, or exceeding, aerosol direct radiative effects, underscoring the need for refined observational and conceptual frameworks.

This Special Issue aims to bring together contributions that advance remote sensing approaches for observing, quantifying, and interpreting aerosol–cloud–radiation interactions and their role in Earth’s energy budget. In particular, we welcome studies using synergistic multi-sensor approaches to analyze long-term observational records (e.g., AERONET, MODIS, VIIRS, CALIPSO, Cloudsat, CERES), as well as applications of new observations from missions (e.g., PACE, PREFIRE, EarthCARE) and planned upcoming missions (e.g., Libera, CLARREO Pathfinder).

Dr. Eshkol Eytan
Dr. Jake J. Gristey
Guest Editors

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