The BALTEX Bridge Campaign - An integrated approach for a better understanding of clouds

Clouds cause uncertainties in the determination of climate sensitivity to either natural or anthropogenic changes. Furthermore, clouds dominate our perception of the weather, and the relatively poor forecast of cloud and precipitation parameters in numerical weather prediction (NWP) models is striking. In order to improve modeling and forecasting of clouds in climate and NWP models the BALTEX BRIDGE Campaign (BBC) was conducted in the Netherlands in August/September 2001 as a contribution to the main field experiment of the Baltic Sea Experiment (BALTEX) from April 1999 to March 2001 (BRIDGE). The complex cloud processes, which involve spatial scales from less than 1 mm (condensation nuclei) to 1000 km (frontal systems) require an integrated measurement approach. Advanced remote sensing instruments were operated at the central facility in Cabauw, Netherlands, to derive the vertical cloud structure. A regional network of stations was operated within a 100 km x 100 km domain to observe solar radiation, cloud liquid water path, cloud-base temperature, and height. Aircraft and tethered balloon measurements were used to measure cloud microphysical parameters and solar radiation below, in, and above the cloud. Satellite measurements complemented the cloud observations by providing the spatial structure from above. In order to better understand the effect of cloud inhomogeneities on the radiation field, three-dimensional radiative transfer modeling was closely linked to the measurement activities. To evaluate the performance of dynamic atmospheric models for the cloudy atmosphere four operational climate and NWP models were compared to the observations. As a first outcome of BBC we demonstrate that increased vertical resolution can improve the representation of clouds in these models.