volcanogenic nutrient fluxes and plant ecosystems in large igneous provinces an example from the columbia river basalt group research from biological and geological sources has highlighted the role of volcanoes in the outgassing of p and thermal fixation and subsequent atmospheric oxidation of no x in volcanic environments the impact of these nutrient fluxes on biological systems has been demonstrated on present day hawai9i and here we consider the impact on the plant communities within a large igneous province lip the miocene columbia river basalt province the youngest lip on earth contains many sedimentary interbeds between the flows of the major extrusive phase and these interbeds preserve variable but often diverse palynofloras by integration of palynofloral analysis with analysis of macronutrient levels in the interbeds it can be suggested that there may have been significantly elevated levels of p within the lava field proximal to the source vents a distribution mirrored by ca and mg evidence for potential volcanogenic eutrophication is restricted to 10 3 year duration interbeds contemporary with eruptive activity elsewhere in the lip the geochemistry and palynology of other interbeds demonstrate nutrient deficiency with a potential route to nutrient sufficiency available from long term symbiotic n fixation elsewhere within the columbia river basalt province this process is short circuited by the imput of felsic ash from the nearby cascades range of volcanoes

snow megadune fields on the east antarctic plateau extreme atmosphere ice interaction large dune fields occupy more than 500 000 km 2 of the east antarctic plateau the megadunes or long wavelength surface ripples have amplitudes of only a few meters wavelengths of a few kilometers and parallel crests which can extend one hundred kilometers they occur in areas characterized by low accumulation extensively recrystallized snow and strong scattering of the microwave part of the spectrum dune crests are oriented perpendicular to the regional katabatic wind direction snow megadunes are unlikely to be formed by simple wind transport of snow particles

plant community ecology and climate on an upland volcanic landscape during the early eocene climatic optimum mcabee fossil beds british columbia canada abstract the mcabee fossil beds in south central british columbia canada provide a record of forest ecosystems within a volcanically active upland landscape during the early eocene climatic optimum eeco to assess plant community ecology and climate within this environment palynology and census style macrofossil collections were investigated from two shale horizons separated in time by likely 103 104 years an ensemble of leaf physiognomic estimates indicates a persistent warm mean annual temperature mat 10 12 c and mesic mean annual precipitation 1000 mm yr 1 climate between the horizons the plant community was similar in both horizons comprising angiosperms e g ulmus fagus alnus betula and carya and gymnosperms e g metasequoia pinus picea and larix plant diversity and the distribution of dicot leaf mass per area ma values were consistent between the two horizons despite intervals of varying tuff thickness and frequency between the horizons differences in macrofossil abundances of ulmus fagus and pinus and a lack of such differences in their respective pollen abundances might be explained by local patch dynamics influenced by spatial heterogeneity resulting from topographic diversity and disturbance ma estimates suggest dicots were predominately deciduous and the distribution of ma is similar to a modern forest in panama influenced by seasonal precipitation the diversity of dicots at mcabee despite relatively lower mean annual temperatures is comparable to fossil plant quarries of similar volume from early eocene sites in patagonia e g laguna del hunco and the denver basin with relatively warmer mats 17 25 c this is best explained by a combination of predominately frost free winters high productivity and an abiotic environment characterized by spatial heterogeneity and high rates of change the sampled paleofloras of this study showcase an eeco plant community likely representing an ecological solution to volcanic disturbance over millennial time scales

biomarkers of oligocene lacustrine source rocks beibuwan song hong basin junction offshore northern vietnam abstract highly oil prone source rocks containing sapropelic type i and mixed types i and iii kerogen are found in 233 m of the 500 m deep fully cored enreca 3 well drilled on bach long vi island located at the junction between the beibuwan and the song hong basins offshore northern vietnam the cored succession is made up entirely by oligocene deep lacustrine deposits the origin of the organic matter om in 62 samples is evaluated on the basis of gas chromatography mass spectrometry gc ms and gc ms ms om in 55 samples is sourced primarily from lacustrine organisms and contains abundant 4 methylsteranes tetracyclic polyprenoids tpp and lycopane and no markers for marine organic matter the proportion of triterpanes derived from angiosperms is low in most saturated fractions and only traces of gymnosperm diterpanes are detected in contrast all aromatic fractions have a high proportion of compounds having an origin from both gymnosperms and angiosperms very high concentrations of hopanoids in both fractions suggest significant bacterial alteration of the original om most samples have a high concentration of rare c31 diaromatic 8 14 secohopanes with a fluorene moiety low pristane phytane pr ph ratios indicate that anoxic suboxic bottom water conditions existed during om accumulation the presence of carotane gammacerane and traces of arylisoprenoids could indicate a stratified water column om in a few samples with lower than average hydrogen index hi is mainly of terrestrial origin with a higher proportion of c29 steranes diterpanes and oleanoids and lower concentrations of both saturated and aromatic hopanes higher pr ph a higher c34 isohopane ratio ihr34 and a lower homohopane index hhi indicate that this low hi om was originally deposited under more oxic conditions and subsequently transported to deeper water low sterane and hopane isomerization ratios show that no samples have reached the oil window some novel maturity parameters for immature lacustrine samples are proposed

effect of surface roughness on bidirectional reflectance of antarctic snow the angular pattern of sunlight reflected by snow is altered by surface roughness which in the interior of antarctica is usually in the form of meter scale longitudinal erosional features sastrugi whose axes align with the direction of strong winds the bidirectional reflectance distribution function brdf changes over the course of a day as the solar azimuth changes relative to the sastrugi axis the normalized brdf or anisotropic reflectance factor r was measured at south pole station from a 22 m tower at 600 660 and 900 nm wavelengths the r pattern was similar at the three wavelengths it probably varies little from 300 to 900 nm measurements were made at solar zenith angles 0 from 67 to 90 over the full range of viewing zenith angle r azimuth angle between sun and view and azimuth angle between sun and sastrugi sas variation of r with sas was notable sastrugi oriented perpendicular to the solar beam cause a reduction of the forward peak and sastrugi at an oblique angle cause r to lose its symmetry about the solar azimuth however the effects of sastrugi are mostly restricted to large viewing zenith angles so remote sensing of albedo and atmospheric properties can be carried out accurately without knowledge of sastrugi height and orientation if only near nadir views are used this recommendation is opposite that for observations of broken clouds over dark surfaces for which large r is preferred a parameterization of r is developed valid for viewing angles r 50 sastrugi can cause a reduction of the snow albedo by altering the angle of incidence and by trapping of photons for the small sastrugi of the antarctic plateau the albedo is unaffected at visible wavelengths but can be reduced by a few percent at near infrared wavelengths when the sun is low

bias in modis cloud drop effective radius for oceanic water clouds as deduced from optical thickness variability across scattering angles the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer modis represents our most advanced system for long term global observations of cloud optical depth and cloud drop effective radius re here we show that the zonal means of 1 modis retrieved and re and 2 retrieved from the multi angle imaging spectroradiometer misr using modis retrieved re as input both exhibit a large local negative bias in the rainbow scattering direction relative to adjacent scattering angles for oceanic water clouds using radiative transfer simulations we demonstrate that these local biases are explained by overestimates in modis retrieved re while 3 d factors on the angular variability of are evident we conclude that a re bias is itself an important contributor to this variability with 3 d factors present we show that upper and lower bound estimates on the biases in the three modis re products namely re1 6 re2 1 and re3 7 retrieved from 1 6 2 1 and 3 7 m channels respectively are possible from a combination of misr and modis data the midpoints of the upper and lower bounds in zonal mean biases are estimated to be 3 11 m for re2 1 and re1 6 and 2 7 m for re3 7 depending on latitude with smaller biases at latitudes where more stratiform clouds contribute to the total low cloud cover removing the bias from the zonal means reveal that re1 6 re2 1 and re3 7 are more similar with each other compared to their original values the change in zonal mean of re as a function of latitude is also very different between original and bias corrected products these differences change the interpretation of the vertical and horizontal distribution of re from the original modis product

widespread evidence of 1500 yr climate variability in north america during the past 14 000 yr there is debate concerning the spatial extent and magnitude of the recently identified 1500 yr climate oscillation existing evidence is largely restricted to the north atlantic and adjacent landmasses the spatial extent magnitude and effects of these climate variations within the terrestrial environment during the holocene have not been established we show that millennial scale climate variability caused changes in vegetation communities across all of north america with a periodicity of 1650 500 yr during the past 14 000 calendar years cal yr times of major transitions identified in pollen records occurred at 600 1650 2850 4030 6700 8100 10 190 12 900 and 13 800 cal yr b p consistent with ice and marine records we suggest that north atlantic millennial scale climate variability is associated with rearrangements of the atmospheric circulation with far reaching influences on the climate

organic geochemical investigations of brown coal lithotypes a contribution to facies analysis of seam banding in the helmstedt deposit abstract samples of light medium light and dark lithotypes from the eocene helmstedt brown coal deposit were examined by organic geochemical methods soxhlet extraction liquid and gas chromatography gc ms the study is part of a facies analysis of banded brown coals there are significant differences between the lithotypes concerning the extractable organic matter yields the composition of the extracts and the composition of the alkane fractions on average the light brown coals produce three times as much extractable organic matter as the dark ones asphaltenes and resins are the main components of the extracts of the light lithotypes hydrocarbons and n s o compounds of lower molecular weight are less abundant than in the dark lithotypes the alkane fraction of light lithotypes contains more n alkanes of high molecular weight and more saturated triterpenoids hopanes excluding homohopane but less unsaturated polycyclic compounds rearranged sterenes triterpenes and less homohopane the generally low concentrations of cyclic diterpanes norabietane norpimarane do not reveal any relationship to the three lithotypes based on these results there is no support for the conventional assumption that the light and dark brown coal lithotypes originated from different plant communities of the paleomoor the results rather suggest that the banding within the seam of the helmstedt brown coal deposit results from different biogeochemical degradation and transformation processes these processes are considered to be dependent on the environment of the paleomoor

paleoenvironment of the quilchena flora british columbia during the early eocene climatic optimum the quilchena fossil locality is dated 51 5 0 4 ma to the early eocene climatic optimum and this locality is reconstructed as the warmest and wettest of the early eocene upland sites from the okanagan highlands of british columbia and northern washington state mean annual temperature mat is estimated from leaf margin analysis using 55 dicot morphotypes as 16 2 2 1 c 14 6 4 8 c using bioclimatic analysis of 45 nearest living relatives a moist mesothermal climate is indicated mat 12 7 16 6 c cold month mean temperature cmmt 3 5 7 9 c mean annual precipitation map 103 157 cm year leaf size analysis estimates map at 121 39 cm year estimates from the climate leaf analysis multivariate program corroborate these results although with a slightly cooler mat 13 3 2 1 c plants that support an interpretation of warm winters with minimal or no frost include azolla glyptostrobus taxodium keteleeria pseudolarix eucommia dipteronia hovenia ternstroemia and others these ther

eocene paleo physiography and drainage directions southern interior plateau british columbia a map of reconstructed eocene physiography and drainage directions is presented for the southern interior plateau region british columbia south of 53 n eocene landforms are inferred from the distribution and depositional paleoenvironment of eocene rocks and from crosscutting relationships between regional scale geomorphology and bedrock geology of known age eocene drainage directions are inferred from physiography relief and base level elevations of the sub eocene unconformity and the documented distribution provenance and paleocurrents of early cenozoic fluvial sediments the eocene landscape of the southern interior plateau resembled its modern counterpart with highlands plains and deeply incised drainages except regional drainage was to the north an anabranching valley system trending west and northwest from quesnel and shuswap highlands across the cariboo plateau to the fraser river valley contained north flowing streams from eocene to early quaternary time other valleys dating back at least to middle eocene time include the north thompson valley south of clearwater thompson valley from kamloops to spences bridge the valley containing nicola lake bridge river valley and okanagan lake valley during the early cenozoic highlands existed where the coast mountains are today southward drainage along the modern fraser chilcotin and thompson river valleys was established after the late miocene

biomarker signatures of upper cretaceous latrobe group hydrocarbon source rocks gippsland basin australia distribution and palaeoenvironment significance of aliphatic hydrocarbons abstract upper cretaceous maastrichtian and campanian hydrocarbon source rocks from the latrobe group gippsland basin australia have been analysed using gas chromatography mass spectrometry gc ms in order to understand their geochemical characteristics and to reconstruct palaeovegetation and palaeoclimate changes n alkanes ranging from c10 to c37 dominate the aliphatic hydrocarbons in the rock extracts both the carbon preference index and the odd to even predominance values of n alkanes are higher than 1 0 suggesting an input from terrigenous higher plants low wax indices mostly 3 0 a low gammacerane index

spectral bidirectional reflectance of antarctic snow measurements and parameterization the bidirectional reflectance distribution function brdf of snow was measured from a 32 m tower at dome c at latitude 75 s on the east antarctic plateau these measurements were made at 96 solar zenith angles between 51 and 87 and cover wavelengths 350 2400 nm with 3 to 30 nm resolution over the full range of viewing geometry the brdf at 900 nm had previously been measured at the south pole the dome c measurement at that wavelength is similar at both locations the natural roughness of the snow surface causes the anisotropy of the brdf to be less than that of flat snow the inherent brdf of the snow is nearly constant in the high albedo part of the spectrum 350 900 nm but the angular distribution of reflected radiance becomes more isotropic at the shorter wavelengths because of atmospheric rayleigh scattering parameterizations were developed for the anisotropic reflectance factor using a small number of empirical orthogonal functions because the reflectance is more anisotropic at wavelengths at which ice is more absorptive albedo rather than wavelength is used as a predictor in the near infrared the parameterizations cover nearly all viewing angles and are applicable to the high parts of the antarctic plateau that have small surface roughness and at viewing zenith angles less than 55 elsewhere on the plateau where larger surface roughness affects the brdf at larger viewing angles the root mean squared error of the parameterized reflectances is between 2 and 4 at wavelengths less than 1400 nm and between 5 and 8 at longer wavelengths

satellite multiangle cumulus geometry retrieval case study most satellite based analyses have been conducted using near nadir viewing sensors the multi angle imaging spectroradiometer misr recently launched on the national aeronautics and space administration nasa terra platform provides high resolution measurements of reflectance at nine different viewing angles in this study we examine the possible retrieval of detailed cumulus geometry using the new and unique misr datasets we suggested one approach and apply it to an early misr dataset of small marine cumulus clouds this paper also presents validation analysis of this technique with both independent ground based radar measurements and a model output inverse problem collocated and coincident misr data and ground based observations at the atmospheric radiation measurement arm tropical western pacific twp site form the basis of this validation future work will attempt to test the suggested approach with additional misr scenes

view angle dependence of cloud optical thicknesses retrieved by moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer modis 1 this study examines whether cloud inhomogeneity influences the view angle dependence of modis cloud optical thickness retrieval results the degree of cloud inhomogeneity is characterized through the local gradient in 11 m brightness temperature the analysis of liquid phase clouds in a 1 year long global data set of collection 4 modis data reveals that while optical thickness retrievals give remarkably consistent results for all view directions if clouds are homogeneous they give much higher values for oblique views than for overhead views if clouds are inhomogeneous and the sun is fairly oblique the mean optical thickness retrieved for the most inhomogeneous third of cloudy pixels is more than 40 higher for oblique views than for overhead views if the solar zenith angle exceeds 60 after considering a variety of possible scenarios the paper concludes that the most likely reason for the increase lies in three dimensional radiative interactions that are not considered in current one dimensional retrieval algorithms namely the radiative effect of cloud sides viewed at oblique angles seems to contribute most to the enhanced optical thickness values the results presented here will help understand and estimate cloud retrieval uncertainties related to cloud inhomogeneity and may eventually help correct for the observed view angle dependent biases

depositional setting fossil flora and paleoenvironment of the early eocene falkland site okanagan highlands british columbia the fossil flora and depositional setting of the early eocene falkland site in the southern interior of british columbia canada is reported in detail for the first time using a census sampling approach the falkland site is part of the series of okanagan highlands fossil localities in british columbia and washington state that represent relatively cool upland environments within the context of the greenhouse world of the early eocene providing microthermal mean annual temperature mat 13 c climatic conditions for the establishment of cool adapted plants geographically adjacent to subtropical elements from lowland floras plant community composition of the falkland flora is most similar to the republic washington and mcabee british columbia floras based on high sorenson similarity coefficients together forming a southern cluster of okanagan highlands sites the site is a lacustrine deposit that formed in a volcanically active landscape paleoclimate reconstructions based on leaf physiognomy

observations of three dimensional radiative effects that influence modis cloud optical thickness retrievals abstract when cloud properties are retrieved from satellite observations current calculations apply one dimensional 1d theory to the three dimensional 3d world they consider only vertical processes and ignore horizontal interactions this paper proposes a novel approach that estimates 3d effects in cloud optical thickness retrievals the proposed method combines visible and thermal infrared images to see whether 3d radiative effects make clouds appear asymmetric that is whether cloud surfaces tilted toward the sun are systematically brighter than surfaces tilted away from it the observed asymmetries are then used to estimate 3d effects for 1 km size pixels as well as 50 km size areas initial results obtained for moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer modis images reveal that 3d effects cause abundant uncertainties in the 1 km resolution 1d retrievals averaging over 50 km by 50 km areas greatly reduces the errors but does not remove them completely conservative estimates show that the m

an explanation for the effect of clouds over snow on the top of atmosphere bidirectional reflectance 1 it has been a long standing puzzle why clouds which should interact with solar radiation similarly to a thin layer of snow have such a dramatic effect on the reflectance observed by satellites over snow covered regions the presence of a cloud over the snow strongly enhances the anisotropy of the scene so that a cloud over snow scene appears darker than clear sky over snow when observed near nadir but much brighter when observed at large zenith angles in the forward reflected direction by contrast when a plane parallel cloud is placed above a plane parallel snow surface in a model it slightly decreases the anisotropy of the system because of the cloud s smaller particles using a parameterization for the directional reflectance from east antarctic snow developed from extensive near surface observations from a tower we show that the unexpected effect of clouds over snow in this region is due to the non plane parallel nature of the snow surface not to unexpected features of the clouds the snow surface roughness reduces the anisotropy of the reflected sunlight compared to that from a plane parallel snow surface clouds by hiding this roughness with a surface that is very smooth in units of optical depth increase the anisotropy by bringing the system closer to the plane parallel case we use the surface parameterization to accurately model reflectance observations made from the tower over a ground fog and from the top of the atmosphere over cloud covered snow by the misr satellite instrument

variability of optical depth and effective radius in marine stratocumulus clouds abstract radiance measurements made by the advanced very high resolution radiometer avhrr at 1 km nadir spatial resolution were used to retrieve cloud optical depth and cloud droplet effective radius reff for 31 marine boundary layer clouds over the eastern pacific ocean and the southern ocean near tasmania in the majority of these scenes each roughly 256 256 km2 in extent and reff are strongly correlated with linear least squares yielding a regression curve of the form reff 1 5 this relationship is consistent with an idealized model of a nonprecipitating layer cloud in which 1 the average cloud liquid water content increases linearly with height at some fraction of the adiabatic lapse rate in a 1 km2 vertical column and 2 the normalized horizontal variability of the cloud liquid water path exceeds the variability of a scaled measure of the cloud droplet number concentration in contrast other scenes of similar horizontal extent show little or no correlation between retrieved val

reflected solar radiances from broken cloud scenes and the interpretation of scanner measurements if an adequate model of the reflection characteristics of a given scene is available the reflected solar irradiance from the scene may be determined from radiance measurements made by satellite borne scanning radiometers a theoretical analysis of the reflection functions of broken cloud scenes is presented using monte carlo simulations of the radiative transfer in various three dimensional geometries it is shown that the reflection functions of horizontally extensive stratiform and horizontally limited cumuliform clouds are generally quite different the differences are greatest for nadir and limb views but tend to vanish for reflected radiances with a zenith angle of 60 deg applications to satellite observations suggest potential errors of a factor of 2 in the inferred irradiance are likely due to scene misidentification when the radiances are interpreted indiscriminantly selection of preferred satellite viewing directions however can significantly reduce this error

case study of inhomogeneous cloud parameter retrieval from modis data 1 cloud parameter retrieval of inhomogeneous and fractional clouds is performed for a stratocumulus scene observed by modis at a solar zenith angle near 60 the method is based on the use of neural network technique with multispectral and multiscale information it allows to retrieve six cloud parameters i e pixel means and standard deviations of optical thickness and effective radius fractional cloud cover and cloud top temperature retrieved cloud optical thickness and effective radius are compared to those retrieved with a classical method based on the homogeneous cloud assumption subpixel fractional cloud cover and optical thickness inhomogeneity are compared with their estimates obtained from 250m pixel observations this comparison shows a fairly good agreement the cloud top temperature appears also retrieved quite suitably

fossil biotas from the okanagan highlands southern british columbia and northeastern washington state climates and ecosystems across an eocene landscape the late early to early middle eocene okanagan highlands fossil sites spanning 1000 km north south northeastern washington state southern british columbia provide an opportunity to reconstruct biotic communities across a broad upland landscape during the warmest part of the cenozoic plant taxa from these fossil sites are characteristic of the modern eastern north american deciduous forest zone principally the mixed mesophytic forest but also include extinct taxa taxa known only from eastern asian mesothermal forests and a small number of taxa restricted to the present day north american west coast coniferous biome in this preliminary report paleoclimates and forest types are reconstructed using collections from republic in washington state usa and princeton quilchena falkland mcabee hat creek horsefly and driftwood canyon in british columbia canada both leaf margin analysis lma and quantitative bioclimatic analysis of identified nearest living relatives of megaflora indicated uppe

pollen distribution in recent marine sediments eastern canada analysis of 90 samples from coastal and continental shelf areas off eastern canada between 42 and 69 n shows that quaternary pollen and spores are present in recent marine muds throughout this region pollen and spore concentrations range from 50 000 to 100 grains per cm3 and they decrease both offshore as a function of distance from vegetation sources and northwards as a function of lower vegetation density north of the summer arctic frontal zone isopercentage contours show that maximum relative abundances of most palynomorphs occur in marine sediments adjacent to their regions of highest vegetation representation onshore however pinus and picea pollen tend to increase in percentage abundance with distance offshore presence of these tree pollen in marine sediments off baffin island implies that wind transport is an important pathway by which bisaccate pollen types enter the ocean in addition to fluvial transport q mode factor analysis shows that four major factors account for 89 of the variance amo

paleoclimate and precipitation seasonality of the early eocene mcabee megaflora kamloops group british columbia early eocene fossil floras from british columbia are a rich resource for reconstructing western north american early cenozoic climate the best known of these floras reflect cooler mat 15 c upland forest communities in contrast to coeval mat 18 c forests in lowland western north american sites of particular interest is whether early eocene climates were monsoonal highly seasonal precipitation the mcabee site is a 52 9 0 83 ma 0 5 km outcrop of bedded lacustrine shale interbedded with volcanic ash in this report two historical megaflora collections that were collected independently from different stratigraphic levels and or laterally separated by 100 200 m in the 1980s university of saskatchewan and 2000s brandon university are investigated to i assess whether they represent the same leaf population ii assess whether a combined collection yields more precise climate estimates and iii reconstruct paleoclimate to assess the character of regional early eocene precipitation seas

view angle dependent airs cloud radiances implications for tropical anvil structures 1 tropical anvil clouds play important roles in redistributing energy water in the troposphere interacting with dynamics at a wide range of spatial and temporal scales they can become organized internally and form structured cells transporting momentum vertically and laterally to quantify small scale structures inside cirrus and anvils we study view dependence of the cloud induced radiance from atmospheric infrared sounder airs using channels near co2 absorption line the analysis of tropical eight year 30 s 30 n 2003 2010 data suggests that airs east views observe 10 more anvil clouds than west views during day 13 30 lst whereas east views and west views observe equally amount of clouds at midnight 1 30 lst for entire tropical averages airs oblique views observe more anvils than the nadir views while the opposite is true for deep convective clouds the dominance of cloudiness in the east view cannot be explained by airs sampling and cloud microphysical differences tilted and banded anvil structures from convective scale to mesoscale are likely the cause of the observed view dependent cloudiness and gravity wave cloud interaction is a plausible explanation for the observed structures effects of the tilted and banded cloud features need to be further evaluated and taken into account potentially in large scale model parameterizations because of the vertical momentum transport through cloud wave breaking

palynology of eastern indonesian marine piston cores a late quaternary vegetational and climatic record for australasia abstract pollen analyses of late quaternary sediments from nine marine piston cores reveal a continuous vegetation and environmental record for eastern indonesia and northern australia on the island of halmahera a montane oak forest largely replaced the tropical lowland vegetation during the last glacial period while fern cover was strongly reduced during its maximum 18 000 yr b p climate was cooler and slightly drier than today around 10 000 yr b p mangrove vegetation expanded following the rising sea level in our western new guinea record at 14 000 yr b p climate grew warmer and slightly wetter until it stabilised around 10 000 yr b p at that time the mid to upper montane forests expanded to their full altitudinal range and fern cover increased while montane oak forest grassland and woodland areas had contracted in our marine pollen records during the last glacial the climate of northern australia was distinctly drier than today grassland vegetation with sedges increased considerably at 38 000 and 24 000 yr b p replacing eucalypt forest and culminating in a maximum grassland cover at the height of the last glaciation 18 000 yr b p the rapid sea level rise allowed the expansion of mangrove forests and salt bush marshes which had become established on the large tidal flats of the drowning sahul shelf around 12 000 yr b p one piston core g6 4 extends to 300 000 yr b p and shows that glacial periods are characterized by high pollen concentrations in marine sediments recording expanding grassland vegetation during interglacial woodland and fern cover increased while pollen concentrations in the sediments were low after 190 000 yr b p a more open vegetation suggests that conditions were in general much more arid than before repeated mangrove vegetation expansions suggest major rises in sea level at around 244 000 220 000 and 130 000 yr b p

inference of marine stratus cloud optical depths from satellite measurements does 1d theory apply abstract the validity of plane parallel 1d radiative transfer theory for cloudy atmospheres is examined by directly comparing calculated and observed visible reflectances for one month of global area coverage advanced very high resolution radiometer satellite observations of marine stratus cloud layers off the coasts of california peru and angola marine stratus are an excellent testbed as they arguably are the closest to plane parallel found in nature optical depths in a 1d radiative transfer model are adjusted so that 1d model reflectances match those observed at nadir on a pixel by pixel basis the 1d cloud optical depth distributions are then used in the plane parallel model to generate reflectance distributions for different sun earth satellite viewing geometries these reflectance distributions are directly compared with the observations separate analyses are performed for overcast and broken cloud layers as identified by the spatial coherence method when 1d reflectances are directly compare

the potential for improved boundary layer cloud optical depth retrievals from the multiple directions of misr abstract the multiangle imaging spectroradiometer misr views the earth with nine cameras ranging from a 70 zenith angle viewing forward through nadir to 70 viewing aft misr does not have an operational cloud optical depth retrieval algorithm but previous research has hinted that solar reflection measured in multiple directions might improve cloud optical depth retrievals this study explores the optical depth information content of misr s multiple angles using a retrieval simulation approach hundreds of realistic boundary layer cloud fields are generated with large eddy simulation les models for stratocumulus small trade cumulus and land surface forced fair weather cumulus reflectances in misr directions are computed with three dimensional radiative transfer from the les cloud fields over an ocean surface and averaged to misr resolution and sampled at misr 275 m pixel spacing neural networks are trained to retrieve the mean and standard deviation of optical depth over different size pixel pa

modeling the effect of sastrugi on snow reflectance a snow reflectance model was developed to assess the bidirectional reflectance distribution function brdf of snow over anisotropic rough surfaces such as fields of sastrugi commonly encountered in some areas of the ice sheets of antarctica and greenland the sastrugi are modeled as regularly spaced identical rectangular protrusions with the same orientation interfacet multiple scattering is ignored each model sastruga has vertical walls and a small width compared to its length and to its height the input data for the model are the sun and the viewing directions the number of sastrugi per pixel their dimensions and the bidirectional reflectance for a flat snow surface the latter is computed by a multiple scattering model and snow particles are assumed to be spherical mie theory in order to compare the model results with ground measurements acquired at the south pole by grenfell et al 1994 and brandt et al 1991 atmospheric effects were taken into account the model reproduces the global influence of sastrugi on the shape of the brdf the influence of sastrugi is clearly visible for zenith viewing angles larger than 50

regional and local vegetation community dynamics of the eocene okanagan highlands british columbia washington state from palynology palynofloras from the middle early to early middle eocene okanagan highlands northern washington state and southern british columbia are used to reconstruct vegetation across a broad upland eocene landscape in this preliminary report forest floristic composition is reconstructed using palynological analysis of sediments from republic washington localities of the allenby formation in the princeton region hospital hill one mile creek and summers creek road hat creek mcabee falkland horsefly and driftwood canyon british columbia wind dispersed taxa were dominant in all samples consistent with floras preserved in lacustrine and paludal depositional environments pseudolarix was dominant in five of the floras but abies falkland or ulmus republic corner lot site were dominant in individual samples for some floras betulaceae were dominant for mcabee alnus and allenby formation betula matching megafloral data for these sites some taxa common to most sites suggest cool conditions e g

biomarker signatures of upper cretaceous latrobe group petroleum source rocks gippsland basin australia distribution and geological significance of aromatic hydrocarbons abstract aromatic hydrocarbons extracted from upper cretaceous maastrichtian and campanian latrobe group coaly shales and shales from the gippsland basin were investigated by gas chromatography mass spectrometry a variety of 2 ring to 6 ring aromatic hydrocarbons were identified including both higher plant derived and combustion derived polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons pahs these aromatic compounds indicate that the upper cretaceous coaly shales and shales were deposited in a fluvial deltaic environment with significant higher plant input and are at a relatively low thermal maturity stage higher plant parameters and angiosperm gymnosperm indices based on aromatic components suggest that higher land plants including both angiosperms and gymnosperms were an important part of the palaeovegetation in the upper cretaceous the aromatic angiosperm gymnosperm index that includes chrysene and picene type pahs is not as reliable for evaluation of relative angiosperm and gymnosperm contributions as the aliphatic indices due to input of combustion derived pahs and the complexity of burning conditions altering the relative contributions however combustion derived pahs and aromatic angiosperm gymnosperm indices supplement the information from aliphatic hydrocarbons and provide further evidence to support the hypothesis that palaeoclimate cooled from the campanian to the maastrichtian

a study in early diagenesis biomarker composition of a suite of immature coals and coaly shales abstract a suite of samples from the funan mine n e china has allowed a comparison to be made between hydrocarbon rich coals and coaly shales these are immature coals and the known geological history suggests that they have experienced only a mild geothermal history analyses of the di and sesquiterpenoid components show that compounds based on the kaurane skeleton are absent unlike australian brown coals and the diterpenes isopimarane pimarane and 16 h phyllocladane relate to a different community of higher plants such as pinaceae and taxodiaceae from those recognized in australian brown coals a consideration of geochimical parameters and biomarker composition leads to the conclusion that the geolipid concentrations in the sample suite are environmentally determined it is concluded therefore that 22r 17 h 21 h bishomohopanoic acid and the 22r 17 h 21 h homohopane both predominant components in their respective classes are derived from different sources labdanic acids have been identified in these coals they are likely to be derived from resin constituents of the coal and not from microbial biomass they could potentially be developed as a maturation parameter cis and trans isomers of a triaromatic hydrocarbon based on the oleanane skeleton which has been previously identified in victorian brown coal are present in the funan coals the more oxidizing the environment the less advanced is the isomerization of cis to trans and again the environment of deposition is the controlling factor this study emphasizes the importance of understanding pathways of early diagenesis for the interpretation of data derived from more mature samples

influence of subpixel scale cloud top structure on reflectances from overcast stratiform cloud layers abstract recent observational studies have shown that satellite retrievals of cloud optical depth based on plane parallel model theory suffer from systematic biases that depend on viewing geometry even when observations are restricted to overcast marine stratus layers arguably the closest to plane parallel in nature at moderate to low sun elevations the plane parallel model significantly overestimates the reflectance dependence on view angle in the forward scattering direction but shows a similar dependence in the backscattering direction theoretical simulations are performed that show that the likely cause for this discrepancy is because the plane parallel model assumption does not account for subpixel scale variations in cloud top height i e cloud bumps monte carlo simulations comparing 1d model radiances to radiances from overcast cloud fields with 1 cloud top height variations but constant cloud volume extinction 2 flat tops but horizontal variations in cloud volume extinction and 3 v

satellite observations of the impact of weak volcanic activity on marine clouds 1 because emissions from weak volcanic eruptions tend to remain in the low troposphere they may have a significant radiative impact through the indirect effect on clouds however this type of volcanic activity is underreported and its global impact has been assessed only by model simulations constrained with very limited observations first observations of the impact of high latitude active volcanoes on marine boundary layer clouds are reported here these observations were made using a combination of standard derived products and visible images from the modis amsr e and goes detectors two distinctive effects are identified when there is an existing boundary layer cloud deck an increase in cloud brightness and a decrease in both cloud effective radius and liquid water content were observed immediately downwind of the volcanoes the visible appearance of these volcano tracks resembles the effect of man made ship tracks when synoptic conditions favor low cloudiness the volcano plume or volcano cloud increases significantly the cloud cover downwind the volcano cloud can extend for hundreds of kilometers until mixing with background clouds unlike violent eruptions the volcano clouds reported here the aleutian islands in the north pacific and the south sandwich islands in the south atlantic have retrieved microphysical properties similar to those observed in ship tracks however when comparing the volcano clouds from these two regions liquid water content can decrease increase or remain unchanged with respect to nearby unperturbed clouds these differences suggest that composition at the source type of eruption and meteorological conditions influence the evolution of the cloud

neural network retrieval of cloud parameters of inhomogeneous clouds from multispectral and multiscale radiance data feasibility study 1 in this paper we investigated the feasibility of retrieving cloud parameters of inhomogeneous and fractional clouds from simulated multispectral and multiscale radiometric data by using mapping neural networks a radiometric database prepared for neural network training consists of area averaged radiance data for two pixel scales i e 1 km 1 km and 0 25 km 0 25 km pixels respectively the cloud parameter retrieval assumes a vertically uniform inhomogeneous and fractional cloud defined with 6 parameters i e the mean and standard deviation of optical thickness the mean and standard deviation of effective radius the fractional cloud cover and the cloud top temperature all defined at a scale of cloud parameter retrieval the retrieval procedure comprises two separate steps the first one is relative to the angular interpolation and correction of radiance data surface reflection and thermal emission contribution the second step concerns the cloud parameter retrieval as such from interpolated and corrected radiance data the input vector to the retrieval mnns consists of 8 radiometric data in addition to a number of necessary ancillary data such as surface temperature and ground albedo the 8 radiometric data are 5 area averaged radiances over 1 km 1 km pixel and 3 standard deviations of radiance over 1 km 1 km pixel estimated from 0 25 km 0 25 km pixel radiances after evaluating the performance of the neural networks trained for each step we tested the whole retrieval procedure for three types of inhomogeneous and fractional clouds flat top bounded cascade clouds and flat top and non flat top gaussian process clouds all the cloud parameters of these clouds can be retrieved with reasonable accuracy in spite of the fact that the mean and standard deviation of optical thickness of non flat top clouds exhibit some dispersion the inclusion of 0 25 km 0 25 km pixel radiance data as input vector components improved significantly the performance of the cloud parameter retrieval finally we analyzed the consequences of some simplifying assumptions on the retrieved cloud parameters and discussed the perspectives of the cloud parameter retrieval based on the neural networks

cloud cover from high resolution scanner data detecting and allowing for partially filled fields of view we present a new technique for obtaining cloud cover and determining clear sky radiances using high resolution infrared scanner data the technique which can be automated uses the spatial structure of the ir radiance field to identify radiances associated with fields of view that are either free of clouds or completely covered by clouds drawn from one or more distinct layers as the method uses only infrared radiances it should provide equally good results for both daytime and nighttime observations the approach is particularly suited for determining clear sky radiances over oceans from which sea surface temperature might be derived in addition for single layered systems the cloud cover fraction for a given region may be obtained from the clear sky radiance the completely cloud covered radiance and the mean radiance for the region for such systems the separation of completely covered from partially covered fields of view allows an estimate of the errors associated with commonly used threshold techniques for determining cloud cover these errors are in general shown to be highly sensitive to the applied threshold and to depend on the cloud areal size distribution in addition unlike the spatial coherence method described here histograms and correlations of visible and ir radiances as proposed for archiving information on cloud cover may fail to reveal the layered structure of cloud systems furthermore the high local structure observed for the visible radiances of regions that appear to be completely cloud covered makes it impossible to obtain reliable estimates of the cover from visible radiances alone

biogeochemistry of the miocene lacustrine deposit at clarkia northern idaho u s a abstract the lipid preservation observed in the sediments from clarkia reflects an extremely immature thermal history many biomarkers have still retained functionality even after 17 20 million years the soluble components are predominantly higher plant and algal derived lipids and the original sources for these compounds are still preserved in the sediment thus biogeochemical data are in agreement with the associated palaeontological evidence chemical changes noted in the lipids preserved in these sediments are similar to those observed in modern fresh water mesotropic or eutrophic lacustrine sediments therefore it can be inferred that the processes that operate in modern lacustrine sediments are similar to those that took place within the sediments at clarkia 17 20 million years ago

eocene paleontology and geology of western north america western north america preserves a rich record of eocene life and environments under globally warm climates and represents an interval where significant coal and other minerals were deposited the eocene is of interest to biologists and paleontologists for its record of the appearance and rise to dominance of many plant insect and mammal groups now typical of the temperate forests of north america admixed with groups now well represented in tropical areas or restricted to eastern asia this record is also of interest for its potential contribution to our understanding of interactions between climate the biota and the ecosystems they occupied under atmospheric carbon dioxide levels much higher than today documentation of the eocene in western north america offers insights into the effects of future greenhouse climates a special symposium held at the 2014 annual meeting of the geological society of america in vancouver british columbia brought together geologists paleontologists and biologists w

holocene climate variability although the dramatic climate disruptions of the last glacial period have received considerable attention relatively little has been directed toward climate variability in the holocene 11 500 cal yr b p to the present examination of similar to50 globally distributed paleoclimate records reveals as many as six periods of significant rapid climate change during the time periods 9000 8000 6000 5000 4200 3800 3500 2500 1200 1000 and 600 150 cal yr b p most of the climate change events in these globally distributed records are characterized by polar cooling tropical aridity and major atmospheric circulation changes although in the most recent interval 600 150 cal yr b p polar cooling was accompanied by increased moisture in some parts of the tropics several intervals coincide with major disruptions of civilization illustrating the human significance of holocene climate variability c 2004 university of washington all rights reserved

recent advances in remote sensing of seasonal snow remote sensing offers local regional and global observations of seasonal snow providing key information on snowpack processes this brief review highlights advancements in instrumentation and analysis techniques that have been developed over the past decade areas of advancement include improved algorithms for mapping snow cover extent snow albedo snow grain size snow water equivalent melt detection and snow depth as well as new uses of instruments such as multiangular spectroradiometers scatterometry and lidar limitations and synergies of the instruments and techniques are discussed and remaining challenges such as multisensor mapping scaling issues vegetation correction and data assimilation are identified remote sensing is a powerful tool that offers the ability to quantitatively examine the physical properties of snow in remote or otherwise inaccessible areas where measurements may be expensive and dangerous moreover the global coverage and regular repeatability of measurements offered by satellite remote sensing allows scientists to monitor the vast temporal and spatial variability of snow cover satellite and airborne remote sensing augments the relatively sparse in situ observations thereby affording important spatial context for such measurements routinely carried out since the 1960s remote sensing of snow has created a multi decadal archive of variability and trends in snow cover innovations in sensor technology and digital image proces sing allow scientists to visualize and monitor snow cover for hydrology and water resources management climatology and ecosystem science early work on remote sensing of snow and glaciers has been covered in the excellent review by konig and others 2001 and the valuable text by rees 2006 remote sensing of glaciers and ice sheets is rather extensive and beyond the scope of this paper this review concentrates on recent advances in satellite airborne and ground based remote sensing of seasonal snow in many ways the research questions involving seasonal snow have not changed over the past several decades since the inception of remote sensing we still want to know the spatial extent of snow cover snowpack properties such as grain size and albedo snow depth snow water equivalent and the onset of snowmelt however the accuracy with which we can answer these questions has developed significantly the following sections are arranged with regard to these questions highlighting advances within the past decade

fossil palm beetles refine upland winter temperatures in the early eocene climatic optimum eocene climate and associated biotic patterns provide an analog system to understand their modern interactions the relationship between mean annual temperatures and winter temperatures temperature seasonality may be an important factor in this dynamic fossils of frost intolerant palms imply low eocene temperature seasonality into high latitudes constraining average winter temperatures there to 8 c however their presence in a paleocommunity may be obscured by taphonomic and identification factors for macrofossils and pollen we circumvented these problems by establishing the presence of obligate palm feeding beetles chrysomelidae pachymerina at three localities a fourth tentatively in microthermal to lower mesothermal early eocene upland communities in washington and british columbia this provides support for warmer winter eocene climates extending northward into cooler canadian uplands

relationships among properties of marine stratocumulus derived from collocated calipso and modis observations 1 collocated moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer modis imagery and cloud aerosol lidar and infrared pathfinder satellite observation calipso 532 nm total attenuated backscatter coefficients were used to identify 50 km scale segments for ocean regions that had only a single layer of marine stratocumulus on the basis of whether the underlying ocean surface was detected in the backscatter coefficients the segments were separated into those for which all of the 1 km modis pixels were identified as being overcast no surface detected and those for which there were breaks in the cloud layer surface detected cloud properties for the collocated modis pixels were obtained from the modis mod06 cloud product and from a retrieval scheme designed to account for broken clouds within imager pixels for the 50 km overcast segments the variations in optical depth and droplet effective radius re obtained from the mod06 and partly cloudy pixel retrievals were in agreement and the variations in layer temperature were consistent with those inferred from the calipso backscatter coefficients in addition the droplet effective radii retrieved separately using the 1 6 2 1 and 3 7 m modis reflectances were consistent with droplets growing as clouds thickened and mean values of dlnre dln were close to 0 2 as predicted by adiabatic cloud parcel models when the segments contained broken clouds however the droplet effective radii for the three near infrared wavelengths were inconsistent with droplets growing as clouds thickened and dlnre dln departed from 0 2 this breakdown is thought to result from biases in the retrieved cloud properties caused by subpixel scale variations in liquid water amount and droplet radius

aliphatic and aromatic triterpenoid hydrocarbons in a tertiary angiospermous lignite abstract the hydrocarbon biomarker assemlage of a liptinite rich early tertiary angiospermous lignite has been characterized the biomarker fistribution for the lignite confirms the low maturity and previous paleobotanic interpretations the aliphatic hydrocarbon fraction consists predominantly of n alkanes showing a strong odd carbon predominance and numerous de a triterpenoids and triterpenoids derived from higher plants bacterially derived triterpenoids were represented primarily by homohopanes and hopenes the aromatic hydrocarbon fraction contains a series of mono di and triaromatic de a triterpenoids and mono tri and tetraaromatic triterpenoids derived from higher plants the concentration and abundance of monoaromatic triterpenoids containing one to three additonal degress of unsaturation have not seen previously observed in a single deposit as such a diagenetic scheme for angiosperm derived triterpenoids is presented which confirms and extends previous hypothesis

a window into mid latitudinal early eocene environmental variability a high resolution palynological analysis of the falkland site okanagan highlands british columbia canada a series of eocene lake shale deposits from british columbia coined the okanagan highlands are dated from associated volcanic ash as mostly from the early eocene climatic optimum eeco the longest persisting of the early paleogene hyperthermals in this report we focus on high resolution palynological sampling of short sequences for the falkland site to determine if they record centennial or millennial scale vegetation change during the eeco the falkland shales consist of alternating dark and light coloured irregular laminae along with interleaved tephras from volcanic eruptions at this site it is apparent that deposition occurred over several millennia pollen grains were counted under light microscopy using a standard transect method with clustering analysis determining whether the data show any long term trends in plant representation and abundance our data show that regional vegetation was impacted by millennial to centennial scale climatic variability as well as the effects of volcanic e

stratigraphic classification of ancient lakes balancing tectonic and climatic controls lakes and lake deposits present two fundamental paradoxes 1 modern lakes are vastly complicated but the rock records of lakes are relatively simple extensive observations reveal three distinct facies associations of common and widespread occurrence these are referred to here as fluvial lacustrine fluctuating profundal and evaporative facies associations 2 most explanations of modern and ancient lakes attribute their nature to climate but neither modern lake parameters lake size depth and salinity nor the character of ancient lake strata thickness extent lithology correlate with measured or inferred climatic humidity we propose that it is the relative balance of rates of potential accommodation mostly tectonic with sediment water fill mostly a function of climate that controls lake occurrence distribution and character lake basins may be termed overfilled balanced fill or underfilled depending on the balance between these rates we conclude that climate and tectonics exert coequal influence on lake deposits at both mesoscales 1 m to hundreds of meters and macroscales hundreds to thousands of meters

organic geochemistry and petrography of tertiary coals and carbonaceous shales from argentina a series of eight tertiary coal and carbonaceous shale samples with vitrinite reflectance values between 0 50 and 0 58 were extracted fractionated and the saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons analysed for characteristic components by gc and gc ms additionally a microscopical study was undertaken in order to obtain a more precise picture of the samples under investigation the saturated hydrocarbon fractions displayed the typical n alkane distribution for coals of this rank with cpi values between 2 0 and 3 1 among the branched cyclic compounds pristane and homohopane were recognised as relevant components pointing to an oxic depositional environment detection of benzohopanes c32 c35 in the aromatic hydrocarbon fractions suggests that bacteriohopanetetrol was a significant constituent of the coal biomass taking into consideration the pr ph ratios ash contents and microscopical characteristics of the samples aspects of the possible degradation of hopanetetrol to homohopane are discussed resin derived diterpenoids with the phyllocladane and kaurane skeleton were tentatively identified and although minor compounds they are interpreted to be a sign of the contribution of podocarpaceae and araucareaceae to the coal swamp aromatic compounds were dominated by alkylnaphthalene derivatives presumably formed by c ring cleavage and aromatisation of higher plant derived pentacyclic triterpenois which were main components in the high boiling range of the fractions investigated angiosperms especially fagaceae are postulated as source for these polycyclic compounds and hence for some of the polyalkylated aromatic bicyclics detected

accuracy of the independent pixel approximation for satellite estimates of oceanic boundary layer cloud optical depth a theoretical study has been conducted on the effects of cloud horizontal inhomogeneity on the retrieval of optical depth by remote sensing of visible reflectance forty five landsat scenes of oceanic boundary layer clouds provide a sampling of real cloud fields including trade cumulus open and closed cell broken stratocumulus and solid stratocumulus the spherical harmonic discrete ordinate method shdom radiative transfer model is used to calculate two dimensional reflectances from subsampled cloud strips representing the landsat scenes the independent pixel approximation ipa is used to retrieve optical depth for comparison to the original input results for ipa versus ref are presented on scales from the landsat pixel scale 28 5 m to an imager pixel scale 6 km to near mesoscale 60 km the random error decreases as the averaging scale increases but error due to inhomogeneity remains at the 60 km scale the average error is about 6 for high sun 2 for low sun individual scenes however have retrieved optical depth errors as high as 45 due to horizontal radiative transport the ability to retrieve higher statistical moments of the frequency distribution of optical depth is also assessed sigma the standard deviation of is retrieved quite well up to a point then is underestimated due to the smoothing effect of horizontal radiative transport the gamma function parameter another measure of the width of the frequency distribution is retrieved quite well over a wide range but with a systematic bias which varies with solar zenith angle again due to horizontal radiative transport a method is sought to reduce the optical depth retrieval error using a simple correction based on remotely sensed cloud properties of those considered cloud physical aspect ratio computed here from one possible relation which depends on properties obtainable from remote sensing is found to be the most effective correction parameter the aspect ratio correction reduces the retrieved optical depth bias error by 50 to 100 and the rms error by 20 to 50 correction coefficients are presented at three solar zenith angles this work is limited by its consideration of only single level marine boundary layer clouds assumptions of conservative scattering constant cloud droplet size no gas absorption or surface reflectance and restriction to two dimensional radiative transport future work will attempt to remove some of these limitations the landsat data used are also limited due to radiative smoothing

molecular indicators of diagenesis in lignite diastereomeric configuration of triterpenoid derived aromatic hydrocarbons abstract the ratio of tetramethyloctahydropicene diastereomers i and ii is shown to vary as a function of a depth b lithotype and c seam in a 100 m core of continuous coal taken from the latrobe valley victoria this is the first illustration that triterpenoid derived aromatic hydrocarbon diastereomers can be used as molecular indicators of diagenesis

use of misr measurements to study the radiative transfer of an isolated convective cloud implications for cloud optical thickness retrieval 1 radiative transfer simulations of an isolated deep convective cloud reconstructed with stereo techniques from the multiangle imaging spectroradiometer misr are compared with the reflectances measured at the nine misr viewing angles the simulations were done using a three dimensional monte carlo model in which ocean reflectance aerosol and rayleigh scattering were prescribed to match the surrounding clear sky misr measurements making reasonable assumptions regarding the vertical and horizontal distribution of the volume extinction coefficient we were able to reproduce the misr measurements with the 3d radiative calculations while the uniqueness of the these distributions cannot be proven they all lead to retrievals of much larger cloud optical thickness and cloud water content than for a 1d retrieval averaged over the cloud the difference was a factor of about 3 rising to 9 locally this is a consequence of horizontal photon transport that serves to highlight the inadequacy of 1d retrievals for the case of deep convective cloud concerning the internal cloud properties we noticed the angular distribution of modeled radiances did not match the measured radiances when an ice crystal phase function was applied better estimates of the optical depths and water contents of deep convective clouds appear to be obtainable by integrating an estimate of the extinction coefficient over the vertical cloud extent when this can assessed than by attempting to invert the radiance measured from a single angle view using 1d theory