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Title: Arctic Clouds Infrared Imaging Field Campaign Report

Abstract

The Infrared Cloud Imager (ICI), a passive thermal imaging system, was deployed at the North Slope of Alaska site in Barrow, Alaska, from July 2012 to July 2014 for measuring spatial-temporal cloud statistics. Thermal imaging of the sky from the ground provides high radiometric contrast during night and polar winter when visible sensors and downward-viewing thermal sensors experience low contrast. In addition to demonstrating successful operation in the Arctic for an extended period and providing data for Arctic cloud studies, a primary objective of this deployment was to validate novel instrument calibration algorithms that will allow more compact ICI instruments to be deployed without the added expense, weight, size, and operational difficulty of a large-aperture onboard blackbody calibration source. This objective was successfully completed with a comparison of the two-year data set calibrated with and without the onboard blackbody. The two different calibration methods produced daily-average cloud amount data sets with correlation coefficient = 0.99, mean difference = 0.0029 (i.e., 0.29% cloudiness), and a difference standard deviation = 0.054. Finally, the ICI instrument generally detected more thin clouds than reported by other ARM cloud products available as of late 2015.

Authors:
 [1]
  1. Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
DOE ARM Climate Research Facility, Washington, DC (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
OSTI Identifier:
1248496
Report Number(s):
DOE/SC-ARM-16-002
DOE Contract Number:  
AC05-7601830
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Citation Formats

Shaw, J. A. Arctic Clouds Infrared Imaging Field Campaign Report. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.2172/1248496.
Shaw, J. A. Arctic Clouds Infrared Imaging Field Campaign Report. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1248496
Shaw, J. A. 2016. "Arctic Clouds Infrared Imaging Field Campaign Report". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1248496. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1248496.
@article{osti_1248496,
title = {Arctic Clouds Infrared Imaging Field Campaign Report},
author = {Shaw, J. A.},
abstractNote = {The Infrared Cloud Imager (ICI), a passive thermal imaging system, was deployed at the North Slope of Alaska site in Barrow, Alaska, from July 2012 to July 2014 for measuring spatial-temporal cloud statistics. Thermal imaging of the sky from the ground provides high radiometric contrast during night and polar winter when visible sensors and downward-viewing thermal sensors experience low contrast. In addition to demonstrating successful operation in the Arctic for an extended period and providing data for Arctic cloud studies, a primary objective of this deployment was to validate novel instrument calibration algorithms that will allow more compact ICI instruments to be deployed without the added expense, weight, size, and operational difficulty of a large-aperture onboard blackbody calibration source. This objective was successfully completed with a comparison of the two-year data set calibrated with and without the onboard blackbody. The two different calibration methods produced daily-average cloud amount data sets with correlation coefficient = 0.99, mean difference = 0.0029 (i.e., 0.29% cloudiness), and a difference standard deviation = 0.054. Finally, the ICI instrument generally detected more thin clouds than reported by other ARM cloud products available as of late 2015.},
doi = {10.2172/1248496},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1248496}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 2016},
month = {Tue Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 2016}
}