Fig. 3: Cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC) vs liquid water path (LWP) patterns in different cases of cloud optical depth (COD) and/or cloud effective radius (CER) variability/error.

Relative error of 25% was used, and LWP adjustment was set to 0.5. a Variability was applied to both CER and COD and propagated to CDNC and LWP. b Variability was not applied to COD, only to CER. c Variability was not applied to CER, only to COD. d Variability was applied to both COD and CER, but was not propagated to CDNC, only to LWP. e Variability was not propagated to LWP, only to CDNC. f Combined plot of the binned mean values from cases a–e, and the initial values without any variability (No errors, solid black line). Both COD and CER were without variability (black line); CER was accurate but COD included variability/error (blue line); COD was accurate but CER included variability (red line); CER and COD errors influenced only LWP calculation (purple line); CER and COD errors influenced only CDNC calculation (yellow line); CER and COD errors influenced both LWP and CDNC calculation (dashed black line).