Statistical simulation of radiation transfer in horizontally inhomogeneous stratus clouds

Abstract

Abstract The aim of the paper is to analyze the influence of a cloud layer horizontal inhomogeneity on radiation fluxes in the atmosphere using the models based on observation data of the optical thickness for stratus clouds. To reproduce the correlation structure and one-dimensional distributions of the observed stratus optical thickness fields we have developed numerical stochastic cloud models based on the inverse distribution function method and autoregressive schemes. We used Monte Carlo methods to simulate the radiation fluxes for visible and infrared ranges of wavelength.