Paper Info
Title
CERES Edition-2 Cloud Property Retrievals Using TRMM VIRS and Terra and Aqua MODIS Data—Part I: Algorithms
Abstract
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Project was designed to improve our understanding of the relationship between clouds and solar and longwave radiation. This is achieved using satellite broad-band instruments to map the top-of-atmosphere radiation fields with coincident data from satellite narrow-band imagers employed to retrieve the properties of clouds associated with those fields. This paper documents the CERES Edition-2 cloud property retrieval system used to analyze data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Visible and Infrared Scanner and by the MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectrometer instruments on board the Terra and Aqua satellites covering the period 1998 through 2007. Two daytime retrieval methods are explained: the Visible Infrared Shortwave-infrared Split-window Technique for snow-free surfaces and the Shortwave-infrared Infrared Near-infrared Technique for snow or ice-covered surfaces. The Shortwave-infrared Infrared Split-window Technique is used for all surfaces at night. These methods, along with the ancillary data and empirical parameterizations of cloud thickness, are used to derive cloud boundaries, phase, optical depth, effective particle size, and condensed/frozen water path at both pixel and CERES footprint levels. Additional information is presented, detailing the potential effects of satellite calibration differences, highlighting methods to compensate for spectral differences and correct for atmospheric absorption and emissivity, and discussing known errors in the code. Because a consistent set of algorithms, auxiliary input, and calibrations across platforms are used, instrument and algorithm-induced changes in the data record are minimized. This facilitates the use of the CERES data products for studying climate-scale trends.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1109/TGRS.2011.2144601
Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions
Keywords
Field
DocType
atmospheric radiation,atmospheric techniques,calibration,clouds,data analysis,particle size,rain,snow,AD 1998 to 2007,Aqua MODIS Data,Aqua satellite,CERES Edition-2 cloud property retrieval system,CERES data analysis,Clouds Earth's Radiant Energy System,Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer instrument,National Aeronautics and Space Administration,TRMM VIRS,Terra MODIS Data,Terra satellite,Visible and Infrared Scanner,algorithm-induced change analysis,atmospheric absorption,condensed water path,frozen water path,ice-covered surface,longwave radiation,particle size,satellite broad-band instrument,satellite calibration effect,satellite narrow-band image,shortwave-infrared infrared near-infrared technique,snow surface,solar radiation,top-of-atmosphere radiation field,tropical rainfall measuring mission,visible infrared shortwave-infrared split-window technique,Climate,Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES),MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS),Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS),cloud,cloud remote sensing
Meteorology,Optical depth,Satellite,Imaging spectrometer,Ancillary data,Cloud height,Remote sensing,Algorithm,Longwave,Infrared,Emissivity,Mathematics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
49
11
0196-2892
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
16
2.26
6
Authors
19
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Patrick Minnis111327.45
Szedung Sun-Mack2406.32
David F. Young37217.96
Patrick W. Heck4274.28
Donald P. Garber5182.72
Yan Chen6418.49
Douglas A. Spangenberg7405.98
Robert F. Arduini8162.60
qing z trepte9416.80
William L. Smith1012339.08
Kirk Ayers11162.93
Sharon Gibson12285.10
Walter F. Miller13293.96
Gang Hong1414315.47
Venkatesan Chakrapani15162.26
Yoshihide Takano16162.26
Kuo-Nan Liou17172.63
Yu Xie18162.60
Ping Yang1910124.42