The forcing irradiances (downwelling shortwave and longwave irradiances) are the primary drivers of snowmelt; however, in complex terrain, few observations, the use of estimated irradiances, and the influence of topography and elevation all lead to uncertainties in these radiative fluxes. The impact of uncertainties in the forcing irradiances on simulations of snow is evaluated in idealized modeling experiments. Two snow models of contrasting complexity, the Utah Energy Balance Model (UEB) and the Snow Thermal Model (SNTHERM), are forced with irradiances with prescribed errors of the structure and magnitude representative of those found in methods for estimating the downwelling irradiances. Relatively modest biases have substantial impacts on simulated snow water equivalent (SWE) and surface temperature (T s ) across a range of climates, whereas random noise at the daily scale has a negligible effect on modeled SWE and T s . Shortwave biases have a smaller SWE impact, due to the influence of albedo, and T s impact, due to their diurnal cycle, compared to equivalent longwave biases. Warmer sites exhibit greater sensitivity to errors when evaluated using SWE, while colder sites exhibit more sensitivity as evaluated using T s . The two models displayed different sensitivity and responses to biases. The stability feedback in the turbulent fluxes explains differences in T s between models in the negative longwave bias scenarios. When the models diverge during melt events, differences in the turbulent fluxes and internal energy change of the snow are found to be responsible. From this analysis, we suggest model evaluations use T s in addition to SWE.

Ultrasonic pulse propagation through the abdominal wall has been simulated using a model for two-dimensional propagation through anatomically realistic tissue cross sections. The time-domain equations for wave propagation in a medium of variable sound speed and density were discretized to obtain a set of coupled finite-difference equations. These difference equations were solved numerically using a two-step MacCormack scheme that is fourth-order accurate in space and second-order accurate in time. The inhomogeneous tissue of the abdominal wall was represented by two-dimensional matrices of sound speed and density values. These values were determined by processing scanned images of abdominal wall cross sections stained to identify connective tissue, muscle, and fat, each of which was assumed to have a constant sound speed and density. The computational configuration was chosen to simulate that of wavefront distortion measurements performed on the same specimens. Qualitative agreement was found between those measurements and the results of the present computations, indicating that the computational model correctly depicts the salient characteristics of ultrasonic wavefront distortion in vivo. However, quantitative agreement was limited by the two-dimensionality of the computation and the absence of detailed tissue microstructure. Calculations performed using an asymptotic straight-ray approximation showed good agreement with time-shift aberrations predicted by the full-wave method, but did not explain the amplitude fluctuations and waveform distortion found in the experiments and the full-wave calculations. Visualization of computed wave propagation within tissue cross sections suggests that amplitude fluctuations and waveform distortion observed in ultrasonic propagation through the abdominal wall are associated with scattering from internal inhomogeneities such as septa within the subcutaneous fat. These observations, as well as statistical analysis of computed and observed amplitude fluctuations, suggest that weak fluctuation models do not fully describe ultrasonic wavefront distortion caused by the abdominal wall.

[1] Global ''dimming'' and ''brightening,'' the decrease and subsequent increase in solar downwelling flux reaching the surface observed in many locations over the past several decades, and related issues are examined using satellite data from the NASA/Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Surface Radiation Budget (SRB) product, version 2.8. A 2.51 W m À2 decade À1 dimming is found between 1983 and 1991, followed by 3.17 W m À2 decade À1 brightening from 1991 to 1999, returning to 5.26 W m À2 decade À1 dimming over 1999-2004 in the SRB global mean. This results in an insignificant overall trend for the entire satellite period. However, patterns of variability for smaller regions (continents, land, and ocean) are found to differ significantly from the global signal. The significance of the computed linear trends is assessed using a statistical technique that accommodates the autocorrelation typically found in surface insolation time series. Satellite fluxes are compared to measurements from surface radiation stations on both a site-by-site and ensemble basis. Comparison of an ensemble of the most continuous Global Energy Balance Archive (GEBA) sites to SRB data yields a root-mean-square difference and correlation of 2.6 W m À2 and 0.822, respectively. However, the GEBA time series does not correspond well to the SRB global mean owing to its extremely limited distribution of sites. Simulations of the Baseline Surface Radiometer Network using SRB data suggest that the network is becoming more representative of the globe as it expands, but that the Southern Hemisphere and oceans remain seriously underrepresented in the surface networks. This study indicates that it is inappropriate to describe the variability of global surface insolation in the current satellite record using a single linear fit because major changes in slope have been observed over the last 20 years. Further efforts to improve the quality of satellite flux records and the spatial distribution of surface measurement sites are recommended, along with more rigorous analysis of the origins of observed insolation variations, in order to improve our understanding of both long-and short-term variability in the downwelling solar flux at the Earth's surface.

[1] The process of retrieving cloud optical thickness and effective radius from radiances measured by satellite instruments is simulated to determine the error in both the retrieved properties and in the irradiances computed with them. The radiances at 0.64 mm and 3.7 mm are computed for three cloud fields (stratus, stratocumulus, and cumulus) generated by large eddy simulation models. When overcast pixels are assumed and the horizontal flux is neglected in the retrieval process, the error in the domain-averaged retrieved optical thickness from nadir is 1% to À32% (1% to À27%) and the error in the retrieved effective radius is 0% to 67% (0% to 63%) for the solar zenith angle of 30°(50°). Using the radiance averaged over a 1 km size pixel also introduces error in the optical thickness because of the nonlinear relation between the reflected radiance and optical thickness. Both optical thickness and effective radius errors increase with increasing horizontal inhomogeneity. When the 0.64 mm albedo is computed with the independent column approximation using retrieved properties from nadir (oblique) view for a solar zenith angle of 50°, the error is À0.3% to 14% (À5% to À30%) relative to the albedo from 3-D radiative transfer computations with the true cloud properties. The albedo error occurs even though the radiance at one angle is forced to agree because a plane parallel cloud with a single value of optical thickness and effective radius cannot consistently match the radiance angular distribution. In addition, the error in the retrieved cloud properties contributes to the albedo error. When albedos computed with cloud properties derived from nadir and oblique views are averaged, the albedo error can partially cancel. The absolute error in the narrowband 0.64 mm (3.7 mm) albedo averaged over a 1°Â 1°domain is less than 1.5% (0.6%), 5.0% (4.1%), and 7.1% (11%) in order of increasing inhomogeneity, when albedos computed with cloud properties derived from viewing zenith angles between 0°and 60°are averaged and when the solar zenith angle is between 10°and 50°. When the solar zenith angle is 70°, the error increases to up to +24% (+37%) for all three scenes.Citation: Kato, S., L. M. Hinkelman, and A. Cheng (2006), Estimate of satellite-derived cloud optical thickness and effective radius errors and their effect on computed domain-averaged irradiances,

The relative importance of the fat and muscle layers of the human abdominal wall in producing ultrasonic wavefront distortion was assessed by means of direct measurements. Specimens employed included six whole abdominal wall specimens and twelve partial specimens obtained by dividing each whole specimen into a fat and a muscle layer. In the measurement technique employed, a hemispheric transducer transmitted a 3.75-MHz ultrasonic pulse through a tissue section. The received wavefront was measured by a linear array translated in the elevation direction to synthesize a two-dimensional aperture. Insertion loss was also measured at various locations on each specimen. Differences in arrival time and energy level between the measured waveforms and computed references that account for geometric delay and spreading were calculated. After correction for the effects of geometry, the received waveforms were synthetically focused. The characteristics of the distortion produced by each specimen and the quality of the resulting focus were analyzed and compared. The measurements show that muscle produces greater arrival time distortion than fat while fat produces greater energy level distortion than muscle, but that the distortion produced by the entire abdominal wall is not equivalent to a simple combination of distortion effects produced by the layers. The results also indicate that both fat and muscle layers contribute significantly to the distortion of ultrasonic beams by the abdominal wall. However, the spatial characteristics of the distortion produced by fat and muscle layers differ substantially. Distortion produced by muscle layers, as well as focal images aberrated by muscle layers, show considerable anisotropy associated with muscle fiber orientation. Distortion produced by fat layers shows smaller-scale, granular structure associated with scattering from the septa surrounding individual fat lobules. Thick layers of fat may be expected to cause poor image quality due to both scattering and bulk absorption effects, while thick muscle layers may be expected to cause focus aberration due to large arrival time fluctuations. Correction of aberrated focuses using time-shift compensation shows more complete correction for muscle sections than for fat sections, so that correction methods based on phase screen models may be more appropriate for muscle layers than for fat layers.