LITE Cloud Measurements

Our present understanding of the Earth's climate system and the prospects for climate change is limited in part by our knowledge of the vertical distribution of clouds. In particular, tropical cirrus is believed to significantly influence the thermal structure of the upper troposphere and thereby intensify large scale atmospheric circulations. Clouds have been extensively studied using passive satellite instruments, but current instruments are limited in their ability to sense tenuous clouds and multi-layer cloud systems. LITE can unambiguously sense even subvisible cirrus has provided a global look at the prevalence and height of very thin clouds which are below the threshold of detection of current satellite instruments. Even deep cirrus was generally fully penetrated so that the vertical structure of the clouds could be observed and the presence of underlying cloud layers detected. By providing accurate statistics on cloud height and structure, LITE will provide guidance in the development of cloud prediction schemes for the numerical models used in climate study and weather forecasting.