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@article{Herrero-Anta2025,

title = {Impact of cloud presence on sky radiances and the retrieval of aerosol properties},

author = {Sara Herrero-Anta and Roberto Román and Daniel González-Fernández and Claudia Emde and David Mateos and Celia Herrero Barrio and Ramiro González and Oleg Dubovik and Carlos Toledano and Abel Calle and Victoria E. Cachorro and Bernhard Mayer and Ángel M. de Frutos},

url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169809525000304},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2025.107938},

issn = {0169-8095},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-18},

urldate = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Atmospheric Research},

volume = {317},

pages = {107938},

abstract = {This paper explores the influence of the presence of clouds on sky radiances. It also analyses their impact on the retrieval of aerosol properties when using an inversion algorithm whose radiative transfer model (RTM) is designed for cloud-free atmospheres. For that, synthetic observations are simulated for 9 partially cloudy skies and for their equivalent cloud-free skies, considering 16 different aerosol scenarios. A parameter named cloud enhancement factor (CEF) has been used to determine the modifications induced in the sky radiances by each partially cloudy scenario with respect to the cloud-free sky. This parameter indicates that the sky radiances remaining after applying a cloud-screening are affected by the presence of clouds. In general, they show enhancements between 0 and 20 % with respect to the cloud-free radiances, depending on the cloudy conditions and the scattering angle. The synthetic observations used as input for the retrieval of aerosol properties are the ones required by the inversion strategy used, GRASPpac: the aerosol optical depth (AOD) and sky radiances at 4 different wavelengths together with the ceilometer range corrected signal (RCS). In partially cloudy scenarios with low CEFs, the aerosol properties do not present significant changes with respect to the cloud-free conditions. However, for partially cloudy scenarios with higher CEFs, a clear differentiation between the aerosol optical properties retrieved with and without clouds is observed. In these scenarios, the precision of the retrieval is similar for both conditions, but the accuracy is lower for the cloudy conditions. In particular, under partially cloudy conditions, it is observed an overestimation of the real refractive index (RRI) and the single scattering albedo (SSA) between 0.05 and 0.06 and between 0.03 and 0.06 respectively, and an underestimation of the asymmetry factor (g) and the imaginary refractive index (IRI) of about ?0.02 and ? 0.005, respectively. These values slightly vary with the aerosol load and wavelength for the RRI and SSA. The effects on the size distribution parameters are very small, concluding that the impact of clouds is noticeable in the optical properties but not so much in the microphysical part.},

keywords = {Aerosols, clouds, Enhancement effect, GRASP, sky radiance},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{amt-14-2201-2021,

title = {Relative sky radiance from multi-exposure all-sky camera images},

author = {J C Antuña-Sánchez and R Román and V E Cachorro and C Toledano and C López and R González and D Mateos and A Calle and Á M de Frutos},

url = {https://amt.copernicus.org/articles/14/2201/2021/},

doi = {10.5194/amt-14-2201-2021},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-03-22},

journal = {Atmospheric Measurement Techniques},

volume = {14},

number = {3},

pages = {2201--2217},

abstract = {All-sky cameras are frequently used to detect cloud cover; however, this work explores the use of these instruments for the more complex purpose of extracting relative sky radiances. An all-sky camera (SONA202-NF model) with three colour filters narrower than usual for this kind of cameras is configured to capture raw images at seven exposure times. A detailed camera characterization of the black level, readout noise, hot pixels and linear response is carried out. A methodology is proposed to obtain a linear high dynamic range (HDR) image and its uncertainty, which represents the relative sky radiance (in arbitrary units) maps at three effective wavelengths. The relative sky radiances are extracted from these maps and normalized by dividing every radiance of one channel by the sum of all radiances at this channel. Then, the normalized radiances are compared with the sky radiance measured at different sky points by a sun and sky photometer belonging to the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET). The camera radiances correlate with photometer ones except for scattering angles below 10?, which is probably due to some light reflections on the fisheye lens and camera dome. Camera and photometer wavelengths are not coincident; hence, camera radiances are also compared with sky radiances simulated by a radiative transfer model at the same camera effective wavelengths. This comparison reveals an uncertainty on the normalized camera radiances of about 3.3?%, 4.3?% and 5.3?% for 467, 536 and 605?nm, respectively, if specific quality criteria are applied.},

keywords = {Radiative transfer, sky camera, sky radiance},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}