Diurnal variation of the ISCCP cloudiness

Journal Article · Thu Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1994 · Geophysical Research Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/94GL01459· OSTI ID:85402

Kondragunta, C R; Gruber, A ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)

Seven January (1984 to 1990) months of three hourly monthly mean total cloud amount data were subjected to Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis to study large scale features of the diurnal variation of International Satellite Cloud Climatology Program (ISCCP) cloudiness. The first two EOF modes explain two different types of diurnal variation. While the first EOF mode shows the diurnal variation contrast between land and ocean, the second EOF pattern shows diurnal variaton over deep convective cloudy regions. In the second mode, maximum cloudiness occurs at around 2000 Local Solar Time (LST) both over continental and oceanic regions, where deep convective cloudiness occurs. The first two EOF modes explain 78.4% of the total normalized variance. The time coefficients of these two EOF modes indicate that the diurnal variation of cloudiness undergoes non sinusoidal variation.

• OSTI ID: 85402
• Journal Information: Geophysical Research Letters, Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters Journal Issue: 18 Vol. 21; ISSN GPRLAJ; ISSN 0094-8276
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CLIMATE MODELS
CLOUD COVER
DAILY VARIATIONS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
REMOTE SENSING
SPATIAL RESOLUTION