Clouds as Seen by Satellite Sounders (3I) and Imagers (ISCCP). Part III: Spatial Heterogeneity and Radiative Effects

Abstract Their relatively good spectral resolution makes infrared sounders very useful for the determination of cloud properties (day and night), and their coarse spatial resolution has less effect on clouds with large spatial extents like cirrus clouds. The Improved Initialization Inversion (3I) algorithms convert TIROS-N Operational Vertical Sounder observations from the NOAA Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites into atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles and into cloud and surface properties. On the other hand, the relatively high spatial resolution of the imagers from the geostationary and polar orbiting satellites used in the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) is important for the determination of properties of clouds with smaller spatial extents like boundary layer clouds. By combining these quite different datasets some insight into the behavior of retrieved cloud properties with spatial heterogeneity is gained. The effective cloud amount as determined by 3I and ISC...

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