Dusty cloud radiative forcing derived from satellite data for middle latitude regions of East Asia

The dusty cloud radiative forcing over the middle latitude regions of East Asia was estimated by using the 2-year (July 2002-June 2004) data of collocated clouds and the Earth’s radiant energy system (CERES) scanner and moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) from Aqua Edition IB SSF (single scanner footprint). The dusty cloud is defined as the cloud in dust storm environment or dust contaminated clouds. For clouds growing in the presence of dust, the instantaneous short-wave (SW) forcing at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) is about - 275. 7 W/m for cloud over dust (COD) region. The clouds developing in no-dust cloud (CLD) regions yield the most negative short-wave (SW) forcing ( - 311.0 W/m2), which is about 12.8% stronger than those in COD regions. For long-wave (LW) radiative forcing, the no-dust cloud (CLD) is around 102.8 W/m2 , which is 20% less than the LW forcing from COD regions. The instantaneous TOA net radiative forcing for the CLD region is about - 208.2 W/m2, which is 42.1 % larger than the values of COD regions. The existence of dust aerosols under clouds significantly reduces the cooling effect of clouds.