The specific goals and research strategy of FIRE with respect to marine stratocumulus clouds are detailed in the FIRE Implementation Plan (FSET, 1985). The research strategy involves the application of strongly coupled observational and theoretica1 (modeling) approaches to consider cloud properties and relevant physical processes over a range of spatial and temporal scales. This strategy holds the most promise for achieving the FIRE goals with respect to marine stratocumulus.
The specific observational objectives of the Marine Stratocumulus IFO are as follows:
1. Determine the large scale structure of clouds and surrounding meteorological environment.
2. Characterize the fine-scale microphysical, radiative, dynamic, and structure of marine stratocumulus clouds, with emphasis on multiple angular and spectral observations and characterization of the marine stratocumulus life cycle.
The specific objectives related to the understanding of the physical processes of clouds are as follows:
3. Determine the factors that affect the fractional cloudiness and cloud morphology.
4. Identify the role of cloud-top entrainment instability in determining cloud type.
5. Investigate the factors that determine the magnitude of the entrainment rate.
6. Determine how the diurnal radiation cycle is transmitted into a diurnal behavior of the cloud layer.
7. Determine how the maritime aerosols relate to droplet distributions in the stratocumulus clouds.
8. Identify "characteristic" large-scale meteorological environmental features associated with stratocumulus.
The specific objectives related to modeling goals of FIRE are as follows:
9. Provide a data set to relate the (observed) microphysical structure of marine stratocumulus clouds to radiative properties as a function of convective structure meteorological environment conditions.
10. Provide a data set to relate the (analyzed) cloud structure and radiative properties to the radiation field as a function of spatial scale.
11. Provide a data set to seek the optimal means to describe the marine stratocumul field for diagnosis of large scale properties of radiative convergence/divergence and satellite observations.
12. Provide a data set to define the description of cloud properties and class)fication of marine stratocumulus clouds on various temporal and spatial scales. Specific cloud properties are: cloud topology (cloud size, horizontal and vertical aspect ratios, orientation angle of cloud street features, and cloud top texture) and cloud inertial variability (liquid water content and hydrometer size distribution).
13. Provide a data set of multiple angular and spectral radiation observations for validation and improvement of radiation transfer models.
14. Provide a data set for statistical studies of cloud space and time spectra.
15. Provide a data set for validation and improvement of satellite cloud retrieval algorithms Specific retrieval parameters are cloud cover and cloud height.
16. Provide a data set for validation and improvement of GCM parameterizations. Specific properties are: (a) large scale meteorological fields (winds, temperature, and water vapor) and satellite derived cloud properties (cloud fraction, cloud top height, albedo, and long wave emitted flux) at spatial resolution of 25 km and temporal resolution of 1 hour, and (b) satellite derived cloud properties and Marine Stratocumulus IFO observed cloud water content, cloud droplet size distribution, and cloud base altitude at spatial resolution of 1 km for a 500 km X 500 km region.