On the Removal of the Effect of Horizontal Fluxes In Two‐Aircraft Measurements of Cloud Absorption

Cloud absorption inferred from the difference between the net fluxes measured by stacked aircraft below and above clouds is strongly affected by the uncertainties due to cloud horizontal inhomogeneity. the simplest way to get rid of these uncertainties is to perform grand averages over flight legs; if flight legs are long enough, grand averaging may lead to a reliable estimate of cloud absorption. However, the amount of information on ‘true’ cloud absorption returned from such an expensive measurement program will be very limited‐often one number per flight leg.

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