In this thesis spectral solar zenith radiances are analyzed which were obtained from ship-based measurements over the Atlantic ocean. In combination with high-resolution lidar and microwave remote sensing optical and microphysical cloud properties were retrieved using spectral radiation data. To overcome problems of existing transmissivity-based cloud retrievals, a new retrieval algorithm is introduced which circumvents retrieval ambiguities and reduces the influence of measurement uncertainties. The method matches radiation measurements of ratios of spectral transmissivity at six wavelengths with modeled transmissivities. The new retrieval method is fast and accurate, and thus suitable for operational purposes. It is applied to homogeneous and inhomogeneous liquid water and cirrus clouds. The results from the new algorithm are compared to observations of liquid water path obtained from a microwave radiometer, yielding an overestimation for thick liquid water clouds but a slight underestimation for thin clouds. A statistical analysis of retrieved cloud properties during three Atlantic transects is introduced. Similar characteristics of cloud properties are found in the mid latitudes and northern subtropics but the large variability of meridional distribution in the remaining regions imply the prevailing influence of weather systems compared to typical cloud distributions. With about 63% homogeneous stratocumulus clouds are found to be the prevailing cloud type over ocean, while scattered and inhomogeneous liquid water clouds amount to 16% and 21%, respectively. All analyzed distributions are affected by an increased frequency of small values of cloud properties caused by 3D radiative effects. The comparison with satellite-based and ship-based cloud retrievals along the cruise track show comparable results for the cloud optical thickness with limitations for thick liquid water clouds. The meridional distribution of effective radius agreed within the uncertainties of both methods, however, the satellite-derived values are biased toward larger mean values.

Despite large efforts and decades of research, the scientific understanding of how aerosols impact climate by modulating microphysical cloud properties is still low and associated radiative forcing estimates (RFaci ) vary with a wide spread. But since anthropogenically forced aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI) are considered to oppose parts of the global warming, it is crucial to know their contribution to the total radiative forcing in order to improve climate predictions. To obtain a better understanding and quantification of ACI and the associated radiative effect it as been suggested to use concurrent measurements and observationally constrained model simulations. In this dissertation a joint satellite-reanalysis approach is introduced, bridging the gap between climate models and satellite observations in a bottom-up approach. This methodology involves an observationally constrained aerosol model, refined and concurrent multi-component satellite retrievals, a state-of-the-art aerosol activation parameteriza- tion as well as radiative transfer model. This methodology is shown here to be useful for a quantitative as well as qualitative analysis of ACI and for estimating RFaci . As a result, a 10-year long climatology of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) (particles from which cloud droplets form) is produced and evaluated. It is the first of its kind providing 3-D CCN concentrations of global coverage for various supersaturations and aerosol species and offering the opportunity to be used for evaluation in models and ACI studies. Further, the distribution and variability of the resulting cloud droplet numbers and their susceptibility to changes in aerosols is explored and compared to previous estimates. In this context, an analysis by cloud regime has been proven useful. Last but not least, the computation and analysis of the present-day regime-based RFaci represents the final conclusion of the bottom-up methodology. Overall, this thesis provides a comprehensive assessment of interactions and uncertainties related to aerosols, clouds and radiation in regimes of liquid water clouds and helps to improve the level of scientific understanding.

The objective of this study was to assess if new cloud datasets, namely horizontal fields of integrated cloud parameters and transects of cloud profiles becoming available from current and future satellites like MODIS and CloudSAT as well as EarthCARE will allow for the reconstruction of three-dimensional cloud fields. Because three-dimensional measured cloud fields do not exist, surrogate cloud fields were used to develop and test reconstruction techniques. In order to answer the question if surrogate cloud fields may represent real cloud fields and to evaluate potential constraints for cloud field reconstruction, statistics of surrogate cloud fields have been compared to statistics of various remote sensing retrievals. It has turned out that except for cloud droplet effective radius, which is too low, other cloud parameters are in line with parameters derived from measurements. The reconstruction approach is divided into two parts. The first one deals with the reconstruction of the cloud fields. Three techniques with varying complexity are presented constraining the reconstruction by measurements to various degrees. Whereas the first one applies only information of a satellite radiometer, the other two constrain the retrieval also by profile information measured within the domain. Comparing the reconstruction quality of the approaches, there is no superior algorithm performing better for all cloud fields. This might be ascribed to liquid water content profiles of the surrogate cloud fields close to their adiabatic reference. Consequently, the assumption of adiabatic liquid water content profiles of the first scheme yields adequate estimates and additional information from profiles does not improve the reconstruction. The second part of the reconstruction approach addresses the reconstruction quality by comparing parameters of radiative transfer describing photon path statistics as well as reflectances. Therefore three-dimensional radiative transfer simulations with a Monte Carlo code were carried out for the surrogate cloud fields as well as for the reconstructed cloud fields. It was assumed that deviations of the parameter simulated for the reconstructed cloud and the surrogate cloud field are smaller when reconstruction is more accurate. For parameter describing photon pathes it has been found that only deviations of geometrical pathlength statistics reflect the reconstruction quality to a certain degree. Deviations of other parameters like photon penetration depth do not allow for either assessing local differences in reconstruction quality by an individual reconstruction scheme or to infer the most appropriate reconstruction scheme. The differences in reflectances do also not enable to evaluate reconstruction quality. They prevent from gaining insight in local accuracy of reconstruction due to effects like horizontal photon transport weakening the relations between microphysical as well as optical properties and reflectances of the column. In order to address these effects, grids of various complexity, derived by applying photon path properties, were used to weight deviations of cloud properties when analyzing the relationships. Unfortunately, there is no increase of explained variance due to the application of the weighting grids. Additionally, the sensitivity of the results to the model set-up, namely the spatial resolution of the cloud fields as well as the simplification and neglection of ancillary parameters, were analyzed. Though one would assume a strengthening of relationships between deviations of cloud parameters and deviations of reflectances due to more reliable sampling and reduced inter-column transport of photons when column size increases, there is no indication for resolutions where an assessment of the reconstruction quality by means of reflectance deviations becomes feasible. It also has been shown that inappropriate treatment of aerosols in the radiative transfer simulation impose an error comparable in magnitude to differences in reflectances due to inaccurate cloud field reconstruction. This is especially the case when clouds are located in the boundary layer of the aerosol model. Consequently, appropriate aerosol models should be applied in the analysis. May be due to the low surface reflection and the high cloud optical depths, the representation of the surface reflection function seems to be of minor importance. Summarizing the results, differences in radiative transfer do not allow for the assessment of cloud field reconstruction quality. In order to accomplish the task of cloud field reconstruction, the reconstruction part could be constrained employing information from additional measurements. Observational geometries enabling to use tomographic methods and the application of additional wavelengths for validation might help, too. / Ziel der Arbeit war die Evaluierung inwieweit Datensätze von Wolkenparametern, horizontale Felder integraler Wolkenparameter und Schnitte vertikal aufgelöster Parameter, zur Rekonstruktion dreidimensionaler Wolkenfelder genutzt werden können. Entsprechende Datensätze sind durch MODIS und CloudSAT erstmals vorhanden und werden zusätzlich mit dem Start von EarthCARE zur Verfügung stehen. Da dreidimensionale Wolkenfelder aus Messungen nicht existieren, wurden zur Entwicklung der Rekonstruktionsmethoden surrogate Wolkenfelder genutzt. Um die Qualität der surrogaten Wolkenfelder abzuschätzen und um mögliche Randbedingungen zur Rekonstruktion aufzuzeigen, wurden Statistiken der surrogaten Wolkenfelder mit denen unterschiedlicher Fernerkundungsprodukte verglichen. Dabei zeigte sich, dass, abgesehen von den gegenüber Messungen zu geringen Effektivradien der Wolkentropfen in den surrogaten Wolkenfeldern, die übrigen Wolkenparameter gut übereinstimmen. Der Rekonstruktionsansatz gliedert sich in zwei Teile. Der erste Teil beinhaltet die Rekonstruktion der Wolkenfelder. Dazu werden drei Techniken unterschiedlicher Komplexität genutzt, wobei die Komplexität durch den Grad der eingebundenen Messungen bestimmt wird. Während die einfachste Technik lediglich Informationen, wie sie aus Messungen mit einem Satellitenradiometer gewonnen werden können, nutzt, binden die anderen Techniken zusätzlich Profilinformationen aus dem beobachteten Gebiet ein. Analysen zeigten, dass keine der Methoden für alle untersuchten Wolkenfelder den anderen Methoden überlegen ist. Dies mag daran liegen, dass die Flüssigwasserprofile der surrogaten Wolkenfelder nur geringfügig von den in der ersten Rekonstruktionsmethode angenommenen adiabatischen Flüssigwasserprofilen abweichen, so dass die Nutzung der Profile kaum zusätzliche Information für die Rekonstruktion liefert. Im zweiten Teil des Rekonstruktionsansatzes wird die Qualität der rekonstruierten Wolkenfelder durch den Vergleich von Parametern des Strahlungstransfers, wie Photonenpfad-Statistiken und Strahlungsgrößen, evaluiert. Dazu wurden sowohl für die surrogaten Wolkenfelder als auch für die rekonstruierten Wolkenfelder dreidimensionale Strahlungstransfersimulationen mit einem Monte-Carlo-Modell durchgeführt. Angenommen wurde hierbei, dass eine bessere Rekonstruktionsqualität durch geringere Abweichungen der betrachteten Strahlungsparameter aus Simulationen mit rekonstruierten und surrogaten Wolkenfeldern gekennzeichnet ist. Bei den Parametern, die die Photonenwege beschreiben, unterstützen lediglich die Abweichungen der geometrischen Photonenweglängen diese These. Weder erlauben die Abweichungen der übrigen Parameter, zum Beispiel der Eindringtiefen, Rückschlüsse auf die lokale Rekonstruktionsqualität der einzelnen Methoden zu ziehen, noch ermöglichen sie die beste Rekonstruktionsmethode zu identifizieren. Auch die Unterschiede der simulierten Reflektanzen können nicht zur Bestimmung der Rekonstruktionsqualität herangezogen werden. Durch Effekte wie horizontale Photonentransporte werden die Zusammenhänge zwischen mikrophysikalischen und optischen Eigenschaften und Reflektanzen der jeweiligen Gittersäule aufgeweicht, und folglich sind keine Rückschlüsse auf die lokale Rekonstruktionsqualität möglich. Um auf entsprechende Effekte einzugehen, wurden für die Analyse Wichtungsfelder unterschiedlicher Komplexität aus Photonenwegeigenschaften generiert, um diese zur Wichtung der Abweichungen der Wolkeneigenschaften zu nutzen. Der Anteil der erklärten Varianz konnte jedoch durch die Nutzung der entsprechenden Wichtungsfelder nicht erhöht werden. Zusätzlich wurden Sensitivitätsstudien hinsichtlich einzelner Vorgaben der Untersuchung durchgeführt. Dazu wurden sowohl der Einfluss der räumlichen Auflösung der Wolkenfelder als auch die Vereinfachung oder Nichtbetrachtung einzelner Modellparameter analysiert. Eine Reduzierung der Auflösung einhergehend mit einem zuverlässigeren Sampling und reduzierten Photonentransport zwischen den Gittersäulen führte zu keinem direkteren Zusammenhang zwischen den Abweichungen der Reflektanzen und den Abweichungen der mikrophysikalischen Eigenschaften. Folglich existiert keine Auflösung, die die Anwendung des Verfahrens ermöglichen würde. Ebenso wurde gezeigt, dass die unzureichende Einbeziehung von Aerosolen bei den Strahlungstransfersimulationen einen Fehler verursachen kann, der in der Größe dem Unterschied der Reflektanzen unzureichender Wolkenfeldrekonstruktionen gleichkommt. Dies ist insbesondere der Fall, wenn die Wolken sich innerhalb der Grenzschicht des Aerosolmodells befinden. Entspechend sollte in solchen Situationen dem verwendeten Aerosolmodell besondere Beachtung geschenkt werden. Hingegen ist der Einfluss des Ansatzes, wie die Bodenreflektion beschrieben wird, eher gering. Dies mag an dem verwendeten Modell mit einer geringen Albedo in Kombination mit optisch dicken Wolken liegen. Zusammenfassend kann festgestellt werden, dass die Unterschiede im Strahlungstransfer nicht zur Abschätzung der Rekonstruktionsqualität der Wolkenfelder herangezogen werden können. Um dem Ziel einer dreidimensionalen Wolkenfeldrekonstruktion näher zu kommen, könnten beim Rekonstruktionsteil Informationen aus zusätzlichen Messungen als Vorgaben genutzt werden. Ebenso könnten Beobachtungsgeometrien, welche die Anwendung tomographischer Methoden erlauben, sowie zusätzliche Wellenlängen zur Validierung der Rekonstruktionsergebnisse verwendet werden.

Detailed knowledge of the hydrogen population structure is necessary for the interpretation of hydrogen recombination line (HRL) observations. Calculations of hydrogen departure coefficients using a capture-collision-cascade type model with the angular momentum quantum levels resolved that includes the effects of external radiation fields are presented. The stimulating processes are important at radio frequencies and can influence level populations. Updated atomic rates and new numerical techniques with a solid mathematical basis have been incorporated into the model to ensure convergence of the solution. My results differ from previous results by up to 20 per cent. The effects on departure coefficients of continuum radiation from dust, the cosmic microwave background, the stellar ionising radiation, and free-free radiation are quantified. Atomic hydrogen masers occur in recombination plasmas in sufficiently dense HII regions. These HRL masers have been observed in a handful of objects to date and the analysis of the atomic physics involved has been rudimentary. A new model of HRL masers is presented which uses an nl-model to describe the atomic populations interacting with free-free radiation from the plasma, and an escape probability framework to deal with radiative transfer effects. The importance of including the collisions between angular momentum quantum states and the free-free emission in models of HRL masers is demonstrated. The model is used to describe the general behaviour of radiative transfer of HRLs and to investigate the conditions under which HRL masers form. The model results show good agreement with observations collected over a broad range of frequencies. Theoretical predictions are made regarding the ratio of recombination lines from the same upper quantum level for these objects. / Physics / Ph. D. (Astronomy)

Title: Radiation in stellar winds. Resonance line formation in inhomogeneous hot star winds Author: M.Sc. Brankica Šurlan Department: Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Supervisor: RNDr. Jiří Kubát, CSc., Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Abstract: To incorporate the three-dimensional (3-D) nature of stellar wind clump- ing into radiative transfer calculations, in this thesis a newly developed full 3-D Monte Carlo radiative transfer code for inhomogeneous expanding stellar winds is presented and used to investigate how different model parameters influence reso- nance line formation. Realistic 3-D models that describe the dense as well as the rarefied wind components are used to model the formation of resonance lines in a clumped stellar wind. Non-monotonic velocity fields are accounted for as well. It is shown that the 3-D density and velocity wind inhomogeneities have very strong impact on the resonance line formation. The models show that the line opacity is lower for a larger clump separation and shallower velocity gradients within the clumps. They also demonstrate that to obtain empirically correct mass-loss rates from UV resonance lines, wind clumping and its 3-D nature must be taken into account. 1

The Monte Carlo (MC) method is an effective approach to simulate the radiative transfer in an inhomogeneous cloudy atmosphere. It is based on the direct physical simulation of the extinction processes that solar and thermal photons incur when traveling through the atmosphere. A detailed description of the MC method is presented in the second chapter. A new three-dimensional Monte Carlo radiative transfer model, based on a pre-existing model (Trautmann et al. [1999]), has been developed. Some outstanding characteristics of this model are discussed in chapter 3. Several simulations of reflectances, transmittances, absorptances and horizontal flux densities have been performed, the results of which have been compared with worldwide accepted codes (chapter 4). The two cases selected for the radiative transfer computations were taken from the Intercomparison of 3D Radiative Codes (I3RC) project: an ARM (Atmospheric Radiation Measurements) reconstructed cloud and a 3D marine boundary layer cloud / Die Monte Carlo (MC) Methode ist ein effektives Verfahren, um den Strahlungstransport in einer inhomogenen bewölkten Atmosphäre zu simulieren. Es begründet sich auf der direkten Simulation der Extinktionsprozesse eines solaren oder thermischen Photons auf seinem Weg durch die Atmosphäre. Eine detallierte Beschreibung der MC Methode erfolgt in Kapitel 2. In Kapitel 3 wird ein neues dreidimensionales MC-Strahlungstranportmodell vorgestellt, das, aufbauend auf einem schon bestehenden Modell (Trautmann et al. [1999]), entwickelt wurde. Mehrere Simulationen von Reflektanzen, Transmittanzen, Absorptanzen und Strahlungsflussdichten für zwei Fälle des \'Intercomparison of 3D radiative Codes\' projektes, nämlich eine ARM rekonstruierte Wolke und eine 3D marine Grenzschichwolke, wurden durchgeführt, und mit den Ergebnissen anderer weltweit akzeptierten Codes verglichen.

No description available.

Radiative Transfer Models (RTM) have many applications in the satellite microwave remote sensing field, such as the retrieval of oceanic and atmospheric environmental parameters, including surface wind vectors and sea surface temperatures, integrated water vapor, cloud liquid, and precipitation. A key component of the ocean RTM is the emissivity model used to determine the brightness temperature (Tb) at the ocean’s surface. A new wideband ocean emissivity RTM developed by the Central Florida Remote Sensing Laboratory (CFRSL) calculates ocean emissivity over a wide range of frequencies, incidence angles, sea surface temperatures (SST), and wind speed. This thesis presents the validation of this CFRSL model using independent WindSat Tb measurements collocated with Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) Numerical weather model environmental parameters for frequencies between 6.8 to 37 GHz and wind speeds between 0 – 20 m/s over the July 2005 – June 2006 year. In addition, the CFRSL emissivity model is validated using WindSat derived ocean wind speeds and SST that are contained in the Environmental Data Record (EDR) and combined with the GDAS environmental parameters. Finally, the validation includes comparisons to the well-established XCAL ocean emissivity RTM. The focus of this validation and comparison is to assess performance of the emissivity model results with respect to a wide range of frequency and wind speeds but limited to a narrow range of incidence angles between approximately 50° - 55°

In dense hot star winds, the infrared and radio continua are dominated by free‐free opacity and recombination emission line spectra. In the case of a spherically symmetric outflow that is isothermal and expanding at constant radial speed, the radiative transfer for the continuum emission from a dense wind is analytic. Even the emission profile shape for a recombination line can be derived. Key to these derivations is that the opacity scales with only the square of the density. These results are well‐known. Here an extension of the derivation is developed that also allows for line blends and the inclusion of an additional power‐law dependence beyond just the density dependence. The additional power‐law is promoted as a representation of a radius dependent clumping factor. It is shown that differences in the line widths and equivalent widths of the emission lines depend on the steepness of the clumping power‐law. Assuming relative level populations in LTE in the upper levels of He II, an illustrative application of the model to Spitzer/IRS spectral data of the carbon‐rich star WR 90 is given (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

No description available.