Articles | Volume 16, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-969-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-969-2023
Research article
 | 
23 Feb 2023
Research article |  | 23 Feb 2023

The CHROMA cloud-top pressure retrieval algorithm for the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite mission

Andrew M. Sayer, Luca Lelli, Brian Cairns, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Amir Ibrahim, Kirk D. Knobelspiesse, Sergey Korkin, and P. Jeremy Werdell

Data sets

TSIS-1 Hybrid Solar Reference Spectrum (HSRS) LISIRD https://lasp.colorado.edu/lisird/data/tsis1_hsrs

The HITRAN2020 molecular spectroscopic database (https://hitran.org) I. E. Gordon, L. S. Rothman, R. J. Hargreaves, R. Hashemi, E. V. Karlovets, F. M. Skinner, E. K. Conway, C. Hill, R. V. Kochanov, Y. Tan, P. Wcisło, A. A. Finenko, K. Nelson, P. F. Bernath, M. Birk, V. Boudon, A. Campargue, K. V. Chance, A. Coustenis, B. J. Drouin, J.-M. Flaud, R. R. Gamache, J. T. Hodges, D. Jacquemart, E. J. Mlawer, A. V. Nikitin, V. I. Perevalov, M. Rotger, J. Tennyson, G. C. Toon, H. Tran, V. G. Tyuterev, E. M. Adkins, A. Baker, A. Barbe, E. Canè, A. G. Császár, A. Dudaryonok, O. Egorov, A. J. Fleisher, H. Fleurbaey, A. Foltynowicz, T. Furtenbacher, J. J. Harrison, J.-M. Hartmann, V.-M. Horneman, X. Huang, T. Karman, J. Karns, S. Kassi, I. Kleiner, V. Kofman, F. Kwabia-Tchana, N. N. Lavrentieva, T. J. Lee, D. A. Long, A. A. Lukashevskaya, O. M. Lyulin, V. Yu. Makhnev, W. Matt, S. T. Massie, M. Melosso, S. N. Mikhailenko, D. Mondelain, H. S. P. Müller, O. V. Naumenko, A. Perrin, O. L. Polyansky, E. Raddaoui, P. L. Raston, Z. D. Reed, M. Rey, C. Richard, R. Tóbiás, I. Sadiek, D. W. Schwenke, E. Starikova, K. Sung, F. Tamassia, S. A. Tashkun, J. Vander Auwera, I. A. Vasilenko, A. A. Vigasin, G. L. Villanueva, B. Vispoel, G. Wagner, A. Yachmenev, and S. N. Yurchenko https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2021.107949

Spectral Characterisation Data ESA https://sentinels.copernicus.eu/web/sentinel/technical-guides/sentinel-3-olci/olci-instrument/spectral-characterisation-data

Model code and software

The libRadtran software package for radiative transfer calculations (version 2.0.1) C. Emde, R. Buras-Schnell, A. Kylling, B. Mayer, J. Gasteiger, U. Hamann, J. Kylling, B. Richter, C. Pause, T. Dowling, and L. Bugliaro https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-1647-2016

Development and recent evaluation of the MT_CKD model of continuum absorption (https://github.com/AER-RC/MT_CKD) E. J. Mlawer, V. H. Payne, J.-L. Moncet, J. S. Delamere, M. J. Alvarado, and D. C. Tobin https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2011.0295

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Short summary
This paper presents a method to estimate the height of the top of clouds above Earth's surface using satellite measurements. It is based on light absorption by oxygen in Earth's atmosphere, which darkens the signal that a satellite will see at certain wavelengths of light. Clouds "shield" the satellite from some of this darkening, dependent on cloud height (and other factors), because clouds scatter light at these wavelengths. The method will be applied to the future NASA PACE mission.