Objective Synoptic Classification of Stratus: Impact on Macroscopic Cloud Statistics

Stratus clouds are important in the regulation of the earth’s radiation budget and so play an important role in climate over both the land and ocean. Therefore, it is necessary that adequate observational databases exist for both continental and maritime boundary layer clouds. Stratus cloud and environmental properties may vary as a function of the large-scale synoptic regime. These differences can have a significant impact on radiative transfer and cloud microphysics and therefore on cloud, boundary layer, and climate modeling. A number of subjective synoptic classification schemes have been performed, but vary in their selection criteria. This creates difficulty in consistently applying statistical descriptions of clouds in model parameterizations. Objective methods need to be evaluated in order to consistently and accurately parameterize cloud properties in numerical model simulations.