Physical and Optical Properties of Tropical Cirrus Clouds Using LIDAR

Cirrus clouds present in the upper troposphere has a substantial effect on regulating the Earth’s radiation balance and climate. It affects the energy budget by reflecting incoming solar or short wave (SW) radiations back to space and emit less infrared or long wave (LW) radiations to the space. Hence the information on altitude and spatial distribution of cirrus clouds its formation and their properties especially over the monsoon are essential to understand their role in the overall climate and the associated feedback mechanisms. This book provides a new insight and betterunderstanding on the distribution of cirrus in the tropics as well as their micro- and macrophysical properties along with the nucleation mechanism of the cirrus clouds over a particular inland station.