Cloud Thickness Estimation from GOES-8 Satellite Data Over the ARM-SGP Site

نویسندگان

  • V. Chakrapani
  • D. R. Doelling
  • A. D. Rapp
  • P. Minnis
چکیده

The effects of clouds on radiative forcing are topics of intense interest and of direct relevance to climate change. They remain the greatest source of uncertainty in global climate models. There are many cloud properties that can alter the effect of clouds on the climate system. One such key parameter is the cloud thickness that affects the distribution of radiative cooling within an atmospheric column. Algorithms and models that explicitly include cloud base and cloud thickness to compute the radiative parameters typically rely on crude assumptions such as constant cloud thickness. Cloud top heights are routinely derived from satellite data; however, obtaining cloud base is not as straightforward. Minnis et al. (1990) and Smith et al. (1992) developed methods for inferring the physical thickness of cirrus clouds by correlating it with cloud optical depth and cloud effective temperature. Minnis et al. (1992) found a strong correlation between the square root of cloud optical depth and thickness for marine stratocumulus clouds. These earlier techniques were combined and used for cloud thickness retrieval for Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program (Minnis et al. 1995). Because these methods are based on very limited datasets taken during field experiments, their accuracy and applicability are highly uncertain. With the availability of continuous lidar, radar, ceilometer, and satellite retrievals over the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) Central Facility (CF), it is possible to develop and test cloud thickness retrieval methods using a wider variety and better sampling of cloud conditions than heretofore possible. In this study, empirical models for four singlelayer cloud types are developed by correlating satellitederived microphysical properties with cloud thickness data derived from active instruments at the ARM CF between March and December 2000. The resulting empirical model performance is then compared to that of the earlier parameterization.

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تاریخ انتشار 2002