Analysis of global cloudiness comparison of meteor, Nimbus 7, and international satellite cloud climatology project (ISCCP) satellite data

Journal Article · Tue Jul 20 04:00:00 EDT 1993 · Journal of Geophysical Research

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/93JD00530· OSTI ID:91358

Mokhov, I I ^[1]; Schlesinger, M E ^[2]

---

1. Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Moscow (Russian Federation)
2. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)

In this first paper of a three-part series on cloudienss we intercompare the simultaneous cloudiness data obtained from Meteor satellites, Nimbus 7, and the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) for the one-year period, July 1983 to June 1984. Four versions of ISCCP cloudiness are obtained from analyses of the ISCCP-C1 data. These versions differ in their requirements for temporal and spectral sampling. ISCCPs 1 and 2 require for each 2.5{degree} x 2.5{degree} latitude-longitude cell that there be observations at least (N{sub d} = ) 20 of the 28-31 possible days per month and at least (N{sub h} = ) 5 of the 8 possible 3 hourly times each such day; ISCCPs 3 and 4 require only N{sub d} = 1 and N{sub h} = 1. The ISCCP 1-4 intercomparison shows that (1) the cloudiness differences due to the above temporal sampling are smaller than those due to the above spectral sampling; (2) both spectral and temporal sampling effects are larger for the northern hemisphere than for the southern hemisphere; and (3) the difference between zonal mean cloudiness with and without visible information generally increases with latitude from polar night to about 60{degree} latitude in the summer hemisphere. A special observational program in both the Arctic and the Antarctic is proposed to resolve the discrepancies among the satellite and ground-based cloudiness observations in polar latitudes.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 91358
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research Journal Issue: D7 Vol. 98; ISSN JGREA2; ISSN 0148-0227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CLOUDS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELS
GLOBAL ASPECTS
REMOTE SENSING
SIMULATION