A Monte Carlo model is used to calculate the shortwave reflectance of cloud fields in which the liquid water content varies in space. It is shown that, even in unbroken cloud layers of constant geometrical thickness, variations of liquid water content on horizontal scales of a few hundred meters significantly reduce the short-wave reflectance of the cloud layer. The droplet concentration has been varied and the sensitivity of the cloud reflectance to these changes has been calculated. It is shown that the sensitivity of the reflectance of broken and inhomogeneous cloud fields to droplet concentration is significantly less than for plane-parallel clouds, for small values of the solar zenith angle.
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