Interpretation of multi-wavelength-retrieved cloud droplet effective radii in terms of cloud vertical inhomogeneity using a spectral-bin microphysics cloud model and the radiative transfer computation

This study is an attempt that is made to interpret multi- wavelength-retrieved cloud droplet effective radii (CDR) and the differences among R16, R21 and R37 in term of cloud vertical droplet distribution. For this purpose, a spectral-bin microphysical cloud model and radiative transfer computation are used to generate the realistic numerical cloud field and to simulate the CDR retrieval in remote sensing. The result indicates that the cloud vertical inhomogeneous structure causes the differences among R16, R21 and R37 similar to the differences as shown in the satellite observations and the values of R16/R21 and R37/R21 are related to the stage of warm water cloud.