Analysis of global cloudiness comparison of meteor, Nimbus 7, and international satellite cloud climatology project (ISCCP) satellite data
- Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Moscow (Russian Federation)
- 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, Vol. 98, Issue D7; Other Information: PBD: 20 Jul 1993
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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