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Title: Improving Cloud Optical Property Retrievals for Partly Cloudy Pixels Using Coincident Higher-Resolution Single Band Measurements: A Feasibility Study Using ASTER Observations

Journal Article · · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4]
  1. Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, Baltimore, MD (United States); DOE/OSTI
  2. Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore, MD (United States)
  3. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States)
  4. Univ. of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign, Urbana, IL (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Clear-sky contamination is a challenging and long-lasting problem for cloud optical thickness (τ) and effective droplet radius (reff) retrievals using passive satellite sensors. This study explores the feasibility of improving both τ and reff retrievals for partly cloudy (PCL) pixels by using available subpixel samples in a visible to near-infrared band, which many satellite sensors offer. Data are provided by high-resolution reflectance (R ) observations and cloud property retrievals by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) at horizontal resolutions between 30-960m. For partly cloudy 960-m observations, the clear-sky component of the pixels induces significant underestimations of up to 58% for τ, while overestimations in reff can exceed 41%. This yields underestimations in the derived liquid water path and cloud droplet number concentration of up to 68% and 72%, respectively. By means of three different assumptions it is shown that subpixel R observations in the visible to near-infrared band can be used to estimate higher-resolution R for the second band in the retrieval scheme, as well as the subpixel cloud cover. Here, the estimated values compare well to actually observed ASTER results and are used to retrieve cloud properties, which are unbiased by the clear-sky component of PCL pixels. While the presented retrieval approach is only evaluated for marine boundary layer clouds, it is computationally efficient and can be easily applied to observations from different imagers. As an example, the PCL retrieval scheme is applied to data by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, where similar biases for PCL pixels are observed.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, MD (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
U.S. National Science Foundation; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0014641
OSTI ID:
1612254
Journal Information:
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres Journal Issue: 21 Vol. 123; ISSN 2169-897X
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (2)

Cloud Heterogeneity in the Marine Midlatitudes: Dependence on Large‐Scale Meteorology and Implications for General Circulation Models journal March 2019
The sub-adiabatic model as a concept for evaluating the representation and radiative effects of low-level clouds in a high-resolution atmospheric model journal January 2020

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