Comparison of CERES-MODIS stratus cloud properties with ground-based measurements at the DOE ARM Southern Great Plains site
TLDR
In this paper, the authors compared the CERES-MODIS data with observations taken at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains site from March 2000 through December 2004.Abstract:
Overcast stratus cloud properties derived for the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy system (CERES) Project using Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data are compared with observations taken at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains site from March 2000 through December 2004. Retrievals from ARM surface-based data were averaged over a 1-hour interval centered at the time of each satellite overpass, and the CERES-MODIS cloud properties were averaged within a 30-km x 30 km box centered on the ARM SGP site. Two datasets were analyzed: all of the data (ALL) which include multilayered, single-layered, and slightly broken stratus decks and a subset, single-layered unbroken decks (SL). The CERES-MODIS effective cloud heights were determined from effective cloud temperature using a lapse rate method with the surface temperature specified as the 24-h mean surface air temperature. For SL stratus, they are, on average, within the ARM radar-lidar estimated cloud boundaries and are 0.534 +/- 0.542 km and 0.108 +/- 0.480 km lower than the cloud physical tops and centers, respectively, and are comparable for day and night observations. The mean differences and standard deviations are slightly larger for ALL data, but not statistically different to those of SL data. The MODIS-derived effective cloud temperatures are 2.7 +/- 2.4 K less than the surface-observed SL cloud center temperatures with very high correlations (0.86-0.97). Variations in the height differences are mainly caused by uncertainties in the surface air temperatures, lapse rates, and cloud-top height variability. The biases are mainly the result of the differences between effective and physical cloud top, which are governed by cloud liquid water content and viewing zenith angle, and the selected lapse rate, -7.1 K km(exp -1). Based on a total of 43 samples, the means and standard deviations of the differences between the daytime Terra and surface retrievals of effective radius r(sub e), optical depth, and liquid water path for SL stratu are 0.1 +/- 1.9 micrometers (1.2 +/- 23.5%), -1.3 +/- 9.5 (-3.6 +/-26.2%), and 0.6 +/- 49.9 gm (exp -2) (0.3 +/- 27%), respectively, while the corresponding correlation coefficients are 0.44, 0.87, and 0.89. For Aqua, they are 0.2 +/- 1.9 micrometers (2.5 +/- 23.4%), 2.5 +/- 7.8 (7.8 +/- 24.3%), and 28.1 +/- 52.7 gm (exp -2) (17.2 +/- 32.2%), as well as 0.35, 0.96, and 0.93 from a total of 21 cases. The results for ALL cases are comparable. Although a bias in R(sub e) was expected because the satellite retrieval of effective radius only represents the top of the cloud, the surface-based radar retrievals revealed that the vertical profile of r(sub e) is highly variable with smaller droplets occurring at cloud top in some cases. The larger bias in optical depth and liquid water path for Aqua is due, at least partially, to differences in the Terra and Aqua MODIS visible channel calibrations. methods for improving the cloud-top height and microphysical property retrievals are suggested.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
CERES Edition-2 Cloud Property Retrievals Using TRMM VIRS and Terra and Aqua MODIS Data—Part I: Algorithms
Patrick Minnis,S. Sun-Mack,David F. Young,Patrick W. Heck,Donald P. Garber,Yan Chen,Douglas A. Spangenberg,Robert F. Arduini,Qing Z. Trepte,William L. Smith,J. K. Ayers,Sharon Gibson,Walter F. Miller,Gang Hong,Venkatesan Chakrapani,Y. Takano,Kuo-Nan Liou,Yu Xie,Ping Yang +18 more
TL;DR: This paper documents the CERES Edition-2 cloud property retrieval system used to analyze data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Visible and Infrared Scanner and by the MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectrometer instruments on board the Terra and Aqua satellites covering the period 1998 through 2007.
Journal ArticleDOI
Toward understanding of differences in current cloud retrievals of ARM ground-based measurements
Chuanfeng Zhao,Shaocheng Xie,Stephen A. Klein,Alain Protat,Matthew D. Shupe,Matthew D. Shupe,Sally A. McFarlane,Jennifer M. Comstock,Julien Delanoë,Min Deng,M. Dunn,Robin J. Hogan,Dong Huang,Michael Jensen,Gerald G. Mace,Renata B. McCoy,Ewan O'Connor,Ewan O'Connor,David D. Turner,Zhien Wang +19 more
TL;DR: The need to further validate current retrieval theories and assumptions and even the development of new retrieval algorithms with more observations under different cloud regimes is suggested.
Journal ArticleDOI
East Asian Study of Tropospheric Aerosols and their Impact on Regional Clouds, Precipitation, and Climate (EAST-AIRCPC)
Zhanqing Li,Yuan Wang,Jianping Guo,Chuanfeng Zhao,Maureen Cribb,Xiquan Dong,Jiwen Fan,Daoyi Gong,Jianping Huang,Mengjiao Jiang,Yiquan Jiang,Seoung Soo Lee,Huan Li,Jiming Li,Jianjun Liu,Yun Qian,Daniel Rosenfeld,Siyu Shan,Yele Sun,Huijun Wang,Jinyuan Xin,Xin Yan,Xin Yang,Xiu-Qun Yang,Fang Zhang,Youtong Zheng +25 more
TL;DR: In this paper, a comprehensive review of cloud-aerosol-precipitation interactions (CAPI) is presented, focusing on the observations of aerosol loading and properties, relationships between aerosols and meteorological variables affecting CAPI, and quantification of CAPI and their impact on climate.
Journal ArticleDOI
Amazon drought and forest response: Largely reduced forest photosynthesis but slightly increased canopy greenness during the extreme drought of 2015/2016.
Jia Yang,Jia Yang,Hanqin Tian,Hanqin Tian,Shufen Pan,Guangsheng Chen,Bowen Zhang,Shree R. S. Dangal,Shree R. S. Dangal +8 more
TL;DR: It is found that the drought during August 2015-July 2016 was one of the two most severe meteorological droughts since 1901, and Responses of forest greenness and photosynthesis decoupled during this drought, indicating that forest photosynthesis could still be suppressed regardless of the variation in canopy greenness.
Journal ArticleDOI
CERES Edition-2 Cloud Property Retrievals Using TRMM VIRS and Terra and Aqua MODIS Data—Part II: Examples of Average Results and Comparisons With Other Data
Patrick Minnis,S. Sun-Mack,Yan Chen,Mandana M. Khaiyer,Yuhong Yi,J. K. Ayers,R. R. Brown,Xiquan Dong,Sharon Gibson,Patrick W. Heck,Bing Lin,Michele L. Nordeen,Louis Nguyen,Rabindra Palikonda,William L. Smith,Douglas A. Spangenberg,Qing Z. Trepte,Baike Xi +17 more
TL;DR: Cloud properties were retrieved by applying the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) project Edition-2 algorithms to 3.5 years of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Visible and Infrared Scanner data and 5.5 and 8 years of MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data from Aqua and Terra.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Climate change 2001: the scientific basis
John Theodore Houghton,Y. Ding,David John Griggs,M. Noguer,P. J. van der Linden,X. Dai,K. Maskell,C. A. Johnson +7 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an overview of the climate system and its dynamics, including observed climate variability and change, the carbon cycle, atmospheric chemistry and greenhouse gases, and their direct and indirect effects.
Journal ArticleDOI
Advances in understanding clouds from ISCCP
TL;DR: The progress report on the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) describes changes made to produce new cloud data products (D data), examines the evidence that these changes are improvements over the previous version (C data), summarizes some results, and discusses plans for the ISCCP through 2005.
Journal ArticleDOI
Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES): An Earth Observing System Experiment
Bruce A. Wielicki,Bruce R. Barkstrom,Edwin F. Harrison,Robert Benjamin Lee,G. Louis Smith,John E. Cooper +5 more
TL;DR: The CERES broadband scanning radiometers are an improved version of the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) radiometers as mentioned in this paper, which is an investigation to examine the role of cloud/radiation feedback in the Earth's climate system.
Journal ArticleDOI
The MODIS cloud products: algorithms and examples from Terra
Steven Platnick,Michael D. King,Steven A. Ackerman,W.P. Menzel,Bryan A. Baum,Jerome Riedi,Richard A. Frey +6 more
TL;DR: The various algorithms being used for the remote sensing of cloud properties from MODIS data with an emphasis on the pixel-level retrievals (referred to as Level-2 products), with 1-km or 5-km spatial resolution at nadir are described.
Journal ArticleDOI
Determination of the Optical Thickness and Effective Particle Radius of Clouds from Reflected Solar Radiation Measurements. Part I: Theory
TL;DR: In this paper, a method for determining the optical thickness and effective particle radius of stratiform cloud layers from reflected solar radiation measurements is presented, which can be used to determine the droplet radius at some optical depth within the cloud layer.