Synonyms
CLW; LWP
Definition
Total weight of cloud water in a vertical column of atmosphere for a unit of area.
Introduction
Clouds play a vital role in modulating climate and the earth’s radiation budget. In the atmosphere, the latent heat release or consumption occurs either directly within the clouds or in the precipitation produced from inside the clouds. Clouds strongly affect the radiative fluxes through the atmosphere. Thus, the measurements of hydrometeor variables on clouds in various water phases critically affect the numerical weather prediction (NWP) simulation and climate modeling.
Global measurements of the cloud liquid water path can be determined by satellite-measured microwave brightness temperatures, which quantify the thermal emission of cloud particles. In the early 1970s, the feasibility of the microwave measurement of cloud liquid water was demonstrated by a Nimbus-6 scanning microwave spectrometer. A statistical relationship was first derived between the...
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Weng, F. (2014). Cloud Liquid Water. In: Njoku, E.G. (eds) Encyclopedia of Remote Sensing. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-36699-9_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-36699-9_18
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