Combined use of OCTS and POLDER for cloud retrieval

Abstract OCTS and POLDER sensors were launched on ADEOS satellite in August 1996. It is well known that combination of multi-sensor data is useful to retrieve the physical properties of the Earth atmosphere from space. In this work, a procedure for cloud detection and distinction of thermodynamic phase of the top cloud is proposed based on the combined use of ADEOS/POLDER and OCTS. In practice, thermodynamic phase is distinguished by using polarized reflectance at 0.865 μm given by POLDER and brightness temperature at 10.9μm by OCTS. Further effective radius of water cloud particles is extracted from comparison of light scattering simulations with the polarization measurements by POLDER. In this work POLDER and OCTS data of Nov. 10, 1996 are examined.