From: Estelle Condon (econdon at mail.arc.nasa.gov
Organization: NASA

Research Area: Cloud Dynamics and Radiation

Mission: Understanding tropical clouds and their impact on the radiation budget

Evolution and dissipation of tropical cirrus anvils. Cirrus anvils generated by deep convective systems dominate the solar radiative budget in the tropics. The key unresolved issues are what controls the lifetime and horizontal extent of the clouds, and what is the overall impact of these systems on upper tropospheric humidity. Again, past attempts to attack this problem have been hampered by aircraft height limitations. Instrumentation required would include ice crystal samplers, in situ water vapor, cloud lidar, and water vapor lidar.

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