REGIME-DEPENDENT CHARACTERISTICS OF ATMOSPHERIC HEATING IN REGIONAL MODELS AND CLOUDSAT/CALIPSO OBSERVATIONSCLOUDSAT AND CALIPSO PROVIDE A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE ON THE VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF CLOUDS PRECIPITATION AND ATMOSPHERIC RADIATIVE HEATING ACROSS THE FULL SPECTRUM OF ENVIRONMENTS. RECENT REFINEMENTS TO CLOUDSAT S PRECIPITATION ALGORITHMS NOW ALLOW DRIZZLE SHALLOW CONVECTION DEEP CONVECTION STRATIFORM RAINFALL AND FROZEN PRECIPITATION TO BE DISTINGUISHED IN ADDITION TO SEVERAL NONPRECIPITATING CLOUD CLASSES. THIS INFORMATION HAS FURTHER BEEN COUPLED TO AEROSOL PROPERTIES CLOUD MICROPHYSICS AND SURFACE CHARACTERISTICS TO INFER PROFILES OF ATMOSPHERIC RADIATIVE HEATING AT UNPRECEDENTED VERTICAL RESOLUTION AND MAY SERVE AS A PRECURSOR TO ASSIGNING APPROXIMATE LATENT HEATING ESTIMATES TO EACH PIXEL. THIS INVESTIGATION WILL COMBINE THESE NEW MULTI-SENSOR PRECIPITATION AND ATMOSPHERIC HEATING DATASETS WITH STATE-OF-THE-ART CLOUD RESOLVING MODEL SIMULATIONS TO QUANTIFY RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CLOUDS PRECIPITATION AND THE STRUCTURE OF DIABATIC HEATING IN THE ATMOSPHERE. WE PROPOSE THE FOLLOWING RELATED ACTIVITIES TO CONTRIBUTE TO THISBROADER OBJECTIVE:1. DOCUMENT COMPOSITE REFLECTIVITY AND RADIATIVE HEATING STRUCTURES ASSOCIATED WITH THE DISTINCT CLOUD AND PRECIPITATION REGIMES SAMPLED BY CLOUDSAT AND ASSESS THEIR DEPENDENCE ON PROPERTIES OF THE LARGE-SCALE ENVIRONMENT;2. ASSESS THE CONSISTENCY BETWEEN THESE OBSERVED STRUCTURES AND THOSE DERIVED FROM EXISTING AND TARGETED NEW CLOUD RESOLVING MODEL (CRM) SIMULATIONS ACROSS A DIVERSE RANGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL REGIMES USING A RECENTLY DEVELOPED SATELLITE SIMULATOR-SYNTHETIC RETRIEVAL FRAMEWORK;3. EXPLORE THE VALUE OF LINKING CRM OUTPUT AND CLOUDSAT REFLECTIVITY AND PRECIPITATION TYPE OBSERVATIONS FOR ASSIGNING APPROXIMATE LATENT HEATING ESTIMATES TO CLOUDSAT OBSERVATIONS; 4. COMBINE CLOUDSAT OBSERVATIONS AND CRM SIMULATIONS TO QUANTIFY THE EFFECTS OF AEROSOL CONCENTRATION ON CLOUD RADIATIVE FORCING AND ATMOSPHERIC HEATING IN WARM RAIN REGIMES.THE FIRST THREE TASKS WILL ADDRESS ALL FORMS OF PRECIPITATION. TO NARROW THE SCOPE OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH THE FOURTH TASK BUILDS UPON PRIOR WORK THAT SOUGHT TO COMBINE OBSERVATIONS AND MODEL SIMULATIONS TO EXAMINE AEROSOL-PRECIPITATION INTERACTIONS. THROUGH THEIRIMPACTS ON CLOUDS AND PRECIPITATION AEROSOLS PROVIDE A NATURAL LABORATORY FOR EXPLORING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CLOUDS PRECIPITATION AND HEATING PROFILES IN DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS. WHILE CLOUDSAT AND CALIPSO DATASETS ARE THE CENTRAL FOCUS OF THE PROPOSED STUDY COMPLEMENTARY DATASETS FROM AIRS CERES MODIS AMSR-E AND TRMM WILL BE USED TO PROVIDE BROADER REGIME CONTEXT AND MITIGATE UNCERTAINTIES UNDER SOME CONDITIONS. ALL REQUIRED CRM SIMULATIONS WILL BE DERIVE FROM THE REGIONAL ATMOSPHERIC MODELING SYSTEM (RAMS) WITH NEW MICROPHYSICAL BUDGETING CAPABILITIES ALLOWING LATENT HEATING FROM INDIVIDUAL MICROPHYSICAL PROCESSES TO BEISOLATED.THIS INVESTIGATION DIRECTLY ADDRESSES THE OVERARCHING THEME OF THE ROSES 2012 CCST SOLICITATION TO USE CLOUDSAT AND CALIPSO OBSERVATIONS IN COMBINATION WITH OTHER A-TRAIN DATASETS TO ADVANCE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE ROLE OF CLOUDS AND AEROSOLS IN THE CLIMATE SYSTEM. BY SEQUENTIALLY DOCUMENTING REGIME-DEPENDENT ATMOSPHERIC HEATING STRUCTURES EVALUATING THEIR REPRESENTATION IN REGIONALMODELS AND EXPLORING THE FUNDAMENTAL MECHANISMS THAT LINK CLOUDS PRECIPITATION AEROSOLS AND ATMOSPHERIC HEATING IN WARM CLOUD SYSTEMS THIS RESEARCH WILL ULTIMATELY LAY THE GROUNDWORK FOR IMPROVING THE REPRESENTATION OF ENERGY AND WATER CYCLES IN CLIMATE MODELS.