Abstract
In the near-infrared region, liquid water (and ice) absorb weakly, causing a dependence of spectral cloud reflectance on the mean radius of the droplets. Provided optical thickness is known or can be inferred, measurements of reflectance would seem to be capable of yielding some microphysical information, providing a remote sensing technique for cloud microphysics. The present paper compares measured and computed spectra for clouds for which both spectral reflectance and in situ drop-size and and liquid-water measurements were made. Some as yet unresolved disparities were encountered between the various measurements, and these need to be resolved before remote sensing is attempted.
