Articles | Volume 16, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-969-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-969-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
The CHROMA cloud-top pressure retrieval algorithm for the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite mission
Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research (GESTAR) II, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Luca Lelli
Remote Sensing Technology Institute, German Aerospace Centre (DLR), Wessling, Germany
Institute of Environmental Physics and Remote Sensing, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Brian Cairns
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY, USA
Bastiaan van Diedenhoven
SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Leiden, the Netherlands
Amir Ibrahim
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Kirk D. Knobelspiesse
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Sergey Korkin
Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research (GESTAR) II, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
P. Jeremy Werdell
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Related authors
Sean R. Foley, Kirk D. Knobelspiesse, Andrew M. Sayer, Meng Gao, James Hays, and Judy Hoffman
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2392, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2392, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Measuring the shape of clouds helps scientists understand how the Earth will continue to respond to climate change. Satellites measure clouds in different ways. One way is to take pictures of clouds from multiple angles, and to use the differences between the pictures to measure cloud structure. However, doing this accurately can be challenging. We propose a way to use machine learning to recover the shape of clouds from multi-angle satellite data.
Meng Gao, Bryan A. Franz, Peng-Wang Zhai, Kirk Knobelspiesse, Andrew M. Sayer, Xiaoguang Xu, J. Vanderlei Martins, Brian Cairns, Patricia Castellanos, Guangliang Fu, Neranga Hannadige, Otto Hasekamp, Yongxiang Hu, Amir Ibrahim, Frederick Patt, Anin Puthukkudy, and P. Jeremy Werdell
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5863–5881, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5863-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5863-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
This study evaluated the retrievability and uncertainty of aerosol and ocean properties from PACE's HARP2 instrument using enhanced neural network models with the FastMAPOL algorithm. A cascading retrieval method is developed to improve retrieval performance. A global set of simulated HARP2 data is generated and used for uncertainty evaluations. The performance assessment demonstrates that the FastMAPOL algorithm is a viable approach for operational application to HARP2 data after PACE launch.
Edward Gryspeerdt, Adam C. Povey, Roy G. Grainger, Otto Hasekamp, N. Christina Hsu, Jane P. Mulcahy, Andrew M. Sayer, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4115–4122, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4115-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4115-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The impact of aerosols on clouds is one of the largest uncertainties in the human forcing of the climate. Aerosol can increase the concentrations of droplets in clouds, but observational and model studies produce widely varying estimates of this effect. We show that these estimates can be reconciled if only polluted clouds are studied, but this is insufficient to constrain the climate impact of aerosol. The uncertainty in aerosol impact on clouds is currently driven by cases with little aerosol.
Meng Gao, Kirk Knobelspiesse, Bryan A. Franz, Peng-Wang Zhai, Andrew M. Sayer, Amir Ibrahim, Brian Cairns, Otto Hasekamp, Yongxiang Hu, Vanderlei Martins, P. Jeremy Werdell, and Xiaoguang Xu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4859–4879, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4859-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4859-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
In this work, we assessed the pixel-wise retrieval uncertainties on aerosol and ocean color derived from multi-angle polarimetric measurements. Standard error propagation methods are used to compute the uncertainties. A flexible framework is proposed to evaluate how representative these uncertainties are compared with real retrieval errors. Meanwhile, to assist operational data processing, we optimized the computational speed to evaluate the retrieval uncertainties based on neural networks.
Cheng Chen, Oleg Dubovik, David Fuertes, Pavel Litvinov, Tatyana Lapyonok, Anton Lopatin, Fabrice Ducos, Yevgeny Derimian, Maurice Herman, Didier Tanré, Lorraine A. Remer, Alexei Lyapustin, Andrew M. Sayer, Robert C. Levy, N. Christina Hsu, Jacques Descloitres, Lei Li, Benjamin Torres, Yana Karol, Milagros Herrera, Marcos Herreras, Michael Aspetsberger, Moritz Wanzenboeck, Lukas Bindreiter, Daniel Marth, Andreas Hangler, and Christian Federspiel
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 3573–3620, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3573-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3573-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Aerosol products obtained from POLDER/PARASOL processed by the GRASP algorithm have been released. The entire archive of PARASOL/GRASP aerosol products is evaluated against AERONET and compared with MODIS (DT, DB and MAIAC), as well as PARASOL/Operational products. PARASOL/GRASP aerosol products provide spectral 443–1020 nm AOD correlating well with AERONET with a maximum bias of 0.02. Finally, GRASP shows capability to derive detailed spectral properties, including aerosol absorption.
Marc Mallet, Fabien Solmon, Pierre Nabat, Nellie Elguindi, Fabien Waquet, Dominique Bouniol, Andrew Mark Sayer, Kerry Meyer, Romain Roehrig, Martine Michou, Paquita Zuidema, Cyrille Flamant, Jens Redemann, and Paola Formenti
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 13191–13216, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13191-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13191-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents numerical simulations using two regional climate models to study the impact of biomass fire plumes from central Africa on the radiative balance of this region. The results indicate that biomass fires can either warm the regional climate when they are located above low clouds or cool it when they are located above land. They can also alter sea and land surface temperatures by decreasing solar radiation at the surface. Finally, they can also modify the atmospheric dynamics.
Nick Schutgens, Andrew M. Sayer, Andreas Heckel, Christina Hsu, Hiren Jethva, Gerrit de Leeuw, Peter J. T. Leonard, Robert C. Levy, Antti Lipponen, Alexei Lyapustin, Peter North, Thomas Popp, Caroline Poulsen, Virginia Sawyer, Larisa Sogacheva, Gareth Thomas, Omar Torres, Yujie Wang, Stefan Kinne, Michael Schulz, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12431–12457, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12431-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12431-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
We intercompare 14 different datasets of satellite observations of aerosol. Such measurements are challenging but also provide the best opportunity to globally observe an atmospheric component strongly related to air pollution and climate change. Our study shows that most datasets perform similarly well on a global scale but that locally errors can be quite different. We develop a technique to estimate satellite errors everywhere, even in the absence of surface reference data.
Larisa Sogacheva, Thomas Popp, Andrew M. Sayer, Oleg Dubovik, Michael J. Garay, Andreas Heckel, N. Christina Hsu, Hiren Jethva, Ralph A. Kahn, Pekka Kolmonen, Miriam Kosmale, Gerrit de Leeuw, Robert C. Levy, Pavel Litvinov, Alexei Lyapustin, Peter North, Omar Torres, and Antti Arola
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 2031–2056, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2031-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2031-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
The typical lifetime of a single satellite platform is on the order of 5–15 years; thus, for climate studies the usage of multiple satellite sensors should be considered.
Here we introduce and evaluate a monthly AOD merged product and AOD global and regional time series for the period 1995–2017 created from 12 individual satellite AOD products, which provide a long-term perspective on AOD changes over different regions of the globe.
Andrew M. Sayer, Yves Govaerts, Pekka Kolmonen, Antti Lipponen, Marta Luffarelli, Tero Mielonen, Falguni Patadia, Thomas Popp, Adam C. Povey, Kerstin Stebel, and Marcin L. Witek
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 373–404, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-373-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-373-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Satellite measurements of the Earth are routinely processed to estimate useful quantities; one example is the amount of atmospheric aerosols (which are particles such as mineral dust, smoke, volcanic ash, or sea spray). As with all measurements and inferred quantities, there is some degree of uncertainty in this process.
There are various methods to estimate these uncertainties. A related question is the following: how reliable are these estimates? This paper presents a method to assess them.
Zachary Fasnacht, Alexander Vasilkov, David Haffner, Wenhan Qin, Joanna Joiner, Nickolay Krotkov, Andrew M. Sayer, and Robert Spurr
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 6749–6769, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-6749-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-6749-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
The anisotropy of Earth's surface reflection plays an important role in satellite-based retrievals of cloud, aerosol, and trace gases. Most current ultraviolet and visible satellite retrievals utilize climatological surface reflectivity databases that do not account for surface anisotropy. The GLER concept was introduced to account for such features. Here we evaluate GLER for water surfaces by comparing with OMI measurements and show that it captures these surface anisotropy features.
Andrew M. Sayer and Kirk D. Knobelspiesse
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 15023–15048, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-15023-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-15023-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Data about the Earth are routinely obtained from satellite observations, model simulations, and ground-based or other measurements. These are at different space and timescales, and it is common to average them to reduce gaps and increase ease of use. The question of how the data should be averaged depends on the underlying distribution of the quantity. This study presents a method for determining how to appropriately aggregate data and applies it to data sets about atmospheric aerosol levels.
Andrew M. Sayer, N. Christina Hsu, Jaehwa Lee, Woogyung V. Kim, Sharon Burton, Marta A. Fenn, Richard A. Ferrare, Meloë Kacenelenbogen, Samuel LeBlanc, Kristina Pistone, Jens Redemann, Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer, Yohei Shinozuka, and Si-Chee Tsay
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 3595–3627, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3595-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3595-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Aerosols are small particles in the atmosphere such as dust or smoke. They are routinely monitored by satellites due to their importance for climate and air quality. However aerosols above clouds are more difficult to monitor. This study describes an improvement to a technique to monitor light-absorbing aerosols above clouds from four Earth-orbiting satellite instruments. The improved method is evaluated using data from the ORACLES field campaign, which measured these aerosols from aircraft.
Marc Mallet, Pierre Nabat, Paquita Zuidema, Jens Redemann, Andrew Mark Sayer, Martin Stengel, Sebastian Schmidt, Sabrina Cochrane, Sharon Burton, Richard Ferrare, Kerry Meyer, Pablo Saide, Hiren Jethva, Omar Torres, Robert Wood, David Saint Martin, Romain Roehrig, Christina Hsu, and Paola Formenti
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 4963–4990, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4963-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4963-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
The model is able to represent LWP but not the LCF. AOD is consistent over the continent but also over ocean (ACAOD). Differences are observed in SSA due to the absence of internal mixing in ALADIN-Climate. A significant regional gradient of the forcing at TOA is observed. An intense positive forcing is simulated over Gabon. Results highlight the significant effect of enhanced moisture on BBA extinction. The surface dimming modifies the energy budget.
Andrew M. Sayer, N. Christina Hsu, Corey Bettenhausen, Robert E. Holz, Jaehwa Lee, Greg Quinn, and Paolo Veglio
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 1425–1444, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1425-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1425-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
The satellite instrument VIIRS is being used to carry on observations of the Earth made by older satellites like MODIS. Data sets created from these satellite observations depend on the quality of the satellite instruments' calibration. This paper describes a comparison between the calibration of these two sensors. MODIS is believed to be more reliable and so VIIRS is corrected to bring it in line with MODIS. These corrections are shown to improve the quality of VIIRS aerosol data.
A. M. Sayer, N. C. Hsu, and C. Bettenhausen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 5277–5288, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-5277-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-5277-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
MODIS is a satellite sensor widely used in Earth science. Its scanning geometry results in a distortion called the ‘bow-tie effect’, which means that, depending on the location of a pixel relative to the satellite ground track, the size and shape of the pixel may be distorted. This affects data such as aerosol optical depth (AOD) derived from the measurements. This paper illustrates the bow-tie disortion’s effect on AOD and presents techniques to restore AOD data products to a more uniform grid
A. M. Sayer, N. C. Hsu, T. F. Eck, A. Smirnov, and B. N. Holben
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 11493–11523, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-11493-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-11493-2014, 2014
S. K. Ebmeier, A. M. Sayer, R. G. Grainger, T. A. Mather, and E. Carboni
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 10601–10618, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-10601-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-10601-2014, 2014
M. Chin, T. Diehl, Q. Tan, J. M. Prospero, R. A. Kahn, L. A. Remer, H. Yu, A. M. Sayer, H. Bian, I. V. Geogdzhayev, B. N. Holben, S. G. Howell, B. J. Huebert, N. C. Hsu, D. Kim, T. L. Kucsera, R. C. Levy, M. I. Mishchenko, X. Pan, P. K. Quinn, G. L. Schuster, D. G. Streets, S. A. Strode, O. Torres, and X.-P. Zhao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 3657–3690, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-3657-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-3657-2014, 2014
R. C. Levy, S. Mattoo, L. A. Munchak, L. A. Remer, A. M. Sayer, F. Patadia, and N. C. Hsu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 2989–3034, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-2989-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-2989-2013, 2013
Florian Tornow, Ann Fridlind, George Tselioudis, Brian Cairns, Andrew Ackerman, Seethala Chellappan, David Painemal, Paquita Zuidema, Christiane Voigt, Simon Kirschler, and Armin Sorooshian
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3462, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3462, 2024
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
Short summary
Short summary
The recent NASA campaign ACTIVATE (Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western ATlantic Experiment) performed 71 tandem flights in mid-latitude marine cold-air outbreaks off the US Eastern seaboard. We provide meteorological and cloud transition stage context, allowing us to identify days that are most suitable for Lagrangian modeling and analysis. Surveyed cloud properties show signatures of cloud microphysical processes, such as cloud-top entrainment and secondary ice formation.
Sanja Dmitrovic, Joseph S. Schlosser, Ryan Bennett, Brian Cairns, Gao Chen, Glenn S. Diskin, Richard A. Ferrare, Johnathan W. Hair, Michael A. Jones, Jeffrey S. Reid, Taylor J. Shingler, Michael A. Shook, Armin Sorooshian, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Luke D. Ziemba, and Snorre Stamnes
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3088, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3088, 2024
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT).
Short summary
Short summary
This study focuses on aerosol particles, which critically influence the atmosphere by scattering and absorbing light. To understand these interactions, airborne field campaigns deploy instruments that can measure these particles’ directly or indirectly via remote sensing. We introduce the In Situ Aerosol Retrieval Algorithm (ISARA) to ensure consistency between aerosol measurements and show that the two data sets generally align, with some deviation caused by the presence of larger particles.
Brent A. McBride, J. Vanderlei Martins, J. Dominik Cieslak, Roberto Fernandez-Borda, Anin Puthukkudy, Xiaoguang Xu, Noah Sienkiewicz, Brian Cairns, and Henrique M. J. Barbosa
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5709–5729, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5709-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5709-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The Airborne Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (AirHARP) is a new Earth-observing instrument that provides highly accurate measurements of the atmosphere and surface. Using a physics-based calibration technique, we show that AirHARP achieves high measurement accuracy in laboratory and field environments and exceeds a benchmark accuracy requirement for modern aerosol and cloud climate observations. Therefore, the HARP design is highly attractive for upcoming NASA climate missions.
Myungje Choi, Alexei Lyapustin, Gregory L. Schuster, Sujung Go, Yujie Wang, Sergey Korkin, Ralph Kahn, Jeffrey S. Reid, Edward J. Hyer, Thomas F. Eck, Mian Chin, David J. Diner, Olga Kalashnikova, Oleg Dubovik, Jhoon Kim, and Hans Moosmüller
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10543–10565, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10543-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10543-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This paper introduces a retrieval algorithm to estimate two key absorbing components in smoke (black carbon and brown carbon) using DSCOVR EPIC measurements. Our analysis reveals distinct smoke properties, including spectral absorption, layer height, and black carbon and brown carbon, over North America and central Africa. The retrieved smoke properties offer valuable observational constraints for modeling radiative forcing and informing health-related studies.
McKenna Stanford, Ann Fridlind, Andrew Ackerman, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Qian Xiao, Jian Wang, Toshihisa Matsui, Daniel Hernandez-Deckers, and Paul Lawson
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2413, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2413, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The evolution of cloud droplets, from the point they are activated by atmospheric aerosol to the formation of precipitation, is an important process relevant to understanding cloud-climate feedbacks. This study demonstrates a benchmark framework for using novel airborne measurements and retrievals to constrain high-resolution simulations of moderately deep cumulus clouds and pathways for scaling results to large-scale models and space-based observational platforms.
Kerry Meyer, Steven Platnick, G. Thomas Arnold, Nandana Amarasinghe, Daniel Miller, Jennifer Small-Griswold, Mikael Witte, Brian Cairns, Siddhant Gupta, Greg McFarquhar, and Joseph O'Brien
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2021, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Satellite remote sensing retrievals of cloud droplet size are used to understand clouds and their interactions with aerosols and radiation but require many simplifying assumptions. Evaluation of these retrievals typically is done by comparing against direct measurements of droplets from airborne cloud probes. This paper details an evaluation of proxy airborne remote sensing droplet size retrievals against several cloud probes and explores the impact of key assumptions on retrieval agreement.
Ewan Crosbie, Luke D. Ziemba, Michael A. Shook, Taylor Shingler, Johnathan W. Hair, Armin Sorooshian, Richard A. Ferrare, Brian Cairns, Yonghoon Choi, Joshua DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Chris Hostetler, Simon Kirschler, Richard H. Moore, David Painemal, Claire Robinson, Shane T. Seaman, K. Lee Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, and Edward Winstead
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 6123–6152, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6123-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6123-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Marine clouds are found to clump together in regions or lines, readily discernible from satellite images of the ocean. While clustering is also a feature of deep storm clouds, we focus on smaller cloud systems associated with fair weather and brief localized showers. Two aircraft sampled the region around these shallow systems: one incorporated measurements taken within, adjacent to, and below the clouds, while the other provided a survey from above using remote sensing techniques.
Basudev Swain, Marco Vountas, Aishwarya Singh, Nidhi L. Anchan, Adrien Deroubaix, Luca Lelli, Yanick Ziegler, Sachin S. Gunthe, Hartmut Bösch, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 5671–5693, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5671-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5671-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Arctic amplification (AA) accelerates the warming of the central Arctic cryosphere and affects aerosol dynamics. Limited observations hinder a comprehensive analysis. This study uses AEROSNOW aerosol optical density (AOD) data and GEOS-Chem simulations to assess AOD variability. Discrepancies highlight the need for improved observational integration into models to refine our understanding of aerosol effects on cloud microphysics, ice nucleation, and radiative forcing under evolving AA.
Leong Wai Siu, Joseph S. Schlosser, David Painemal, Brian Cairns, Marta A. Fenn, Richard A. Ferrare, Johnathan W. Hair, Chris A. Hostetler, Longlei Li, Mary M. Kleb, Amy Jo Scarino, Taylor J. Shingler, Armin Sorooshian, Snorre A. Stamnes, and Xubin Zeng
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2739–2759, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2739-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2739-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
An unprecedented 3-year aerosol dataset was collected from a recent NASA field campaign over the western North Atlantic Ocean, which offers a special opportunity to evaluate two state-of-the-art remote sensing instruments, one lidar and the other polarimeter, on the same aircraft. Special attention has been paid to validate aerosol optical depth data and their uncertainties when no reference dataset is available. Physical reasons for the disagreement between two instruments are discussed.
Zihao Yuan, Guangliang Fu, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Hai Xiang Lin, Jan Willem Erisman, and Otto P. Hasekamp
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2595–2610, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2595-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2595-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Currently, aerosol properties from spaceborne multi-angle polarimeter (MAP) instruments can only be retrieved in cloud-free areas or in areas where an aerosol layer is located above a cloud. Therefore, it is important to be able to identify cloud-free pixels for which an aerosol retrieval algorithm can provide meaningful output. The developed neural network cloud screening demonstrates that cloud masking for MAP aerosol retrieval can be based on the MAP measurements themselves.
Sean R. Foley, Kirk D. Knobelspiesse, Andrew M. Sayer, Meng Gao, James Hays, and Judy Hoffman
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2392, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2392, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Measuring the shape of clouds helps scientists understand how the Earth will continue to respond to climate change. Satellites measure clouds in different ways. One way is to take pictures of clouds from multiple angles, and to use the differences between the pictures to measure cloud structure. However, doing this accurately can be challenging. We propose a way to use machine learning to recover the shape of clouds from multi-angle satellite data.
Basudev Swain, Marco Vountas, Adrien Deroubaix, Luca Lelli, Yanick Ziegler, Soheila Jafariserajehlou, Sachin S. Gunthe, Andreas Herber, Christoph Ritter, Hartmut Bösch, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 359–375, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-359-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-359-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Aerosols are suspensions of particles dispersed in the air. In this study, we use a novel retrieval of satellite data to investigate an optical property of aerosols, the aerosol optical depth, in the high Arctic to assess their direct and indirect roles in climate change. This study demonstrates that the presented approach shows good quality and very promising potential.
Meng Gao, Bryan A. Franz, Peng-Wang Zhai, Kirk Knobelspiesse, Andrew M. Sayer, Xiaoguang Xu, J. Vanderlei Martins, Brian Cairns, Patricia Castellanos, Guangliang Fu, Neranga Hannadige, Otto Hasekamp, Yongxiang Hu, Amir Ibrahim, Frederick Patt, Anin Puthukkudy, and P. Jeremy Werdell
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5863–5881, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5863-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5863-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
This study evaluated the retrievability and uncertainty of aerosol and ocean properties from PACE's HARP2 instrument using enhanced neural network models with the FastMAPOL algorithm. A cascading retrieval method is developed to improve retrieval performance. A global set of simulated HARP2 data is generated and used for uncertainty evaluations. The performance assessment demonstrates that the FastMAPOL algorithm is a viable approach for operational application to HARP2 data after PACE launch.
Neranga K. Hannadige, Peng-Wang Zhai, Meng Gao, Yongxiang Hu, P. Jeremy Werdell, Kirk Knobelspiesse, and Brian Cairns
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5749–5770, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5749-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5749-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We evaluated the impact of three ocean optical models with different numbers of free parameters on the performance of an aerosol and ocean color remote sensing algorithm using the multi-angle polarimeter (MAP) measurements. It was demonstrated that the three- and seven-parameter bio-optical models can be used to accurately represent both open and coastal waters, whereas the one-parameter model has smaller retrieval uncertainty over open water.
Olivia Linke, Johannes Quaas, Finja Baumer, Sebastian Becker, Jan Chylik, Sandro Dahlke, André Ehrlich, Dörthe Handorf, Christoph Jacobi, Heike Kalesse-Los, Luca Lelli, Sina Mehrdad, Roel A. J. Neggers, Johannes Riebold, Pablo Saavedra Garfias, Niklas Schnierstein, Matthew D. Shupe, Chris Smith, Gunnar Spreen, Baptiste Verneuil, Kameswara S. Vinjamuri, Marco Vountas, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9963–9992, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9963-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9963-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Lapse rate feedback (LRF) is a major driver of the Arctic amplification (AA) of climate change. It arises because the warming is stronger at the surface than aloft. Several processes can affect the LRF in the Arctic, such as the omnipresent temperature inversion. Here, we compare multimodel climate simulations to Arctic-based observations from a large research consortium to broaden our understanding of these processes, find synergy among them, and constrain the Arctic LRF and AA.
Armin Sorooshian, Mikhail D. Alexandrov, Adam D. Bell, Ryan Bennett, Grace Betito, Sharon P. Burton, Megan E. Buzanowicz, Brian Cairns, Eduard V. Chemyakin, Gao Chen, Yonghoon Choi, Brian L. Collister, Anthony L. Cook, Andrea F. Corral, Ewan C. Crosbie, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Sanja Dmitrovic, Eva-Lou Edwards, Marta A. Fenn, Richard A. Ferrare, David van Gilst, Johnathan W. Hair, David B. Harper, Miguel Ricardo A. Hilario, Chris A. Hostetler, Nathan Jester, Michael Jones, Simon Kirschler, Mary M. Kleb, John M. Kusterer, Sean Leavor, Joseph W. Lee, Hongyu Liu, Kayla McCauley, Richard H. Moore, Joseph Nied, Anthony Notari, John B. Nowak, David Painemal, Kasey E. Phillips, Claire E. Robinson, Amy Jo Scarino, Joseph S. Schlosser, Shane T. Seaman, Chellappan Seethala, Taylor J. Shingler, Michael A. Shook, Kenneth A. Sinclair, William L. Smith Jr., Douglas A. Spangenberg, Snorre A. Stamnes, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, Holger Vömel, Andrzej P. Wasilewski, Hailong Wang, Edward L. Winstead, Kira Zeider, Xubin Zeng, Bo Zhang, Luke D. Ziemba, and Paquita Zuidema
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3419–3472, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3419-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3419-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The NASA Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western ATlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE) produced a unique dataset for research into aerosol–cloud–meteorology interactions. HU-25 Falcon and King Air aircraft conducted systematic and spatially coordinated flights over the northwest Atlantic Ocean. This paper describes the ACTIVATE flight strategy, instrument and complementary dataset products, data access and usage details, and data application notes.
Kameswara S. Vinjamuri, Marco Vountas, Luca Lelli, Martin Stengel, Matthew D. Shupe, Kerstin Ebell, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2903–2918, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2903-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2903-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Clouds play an important role in Arctic amplification. Cloud data from ground-based sites are valuable but cannot represent the whole Arctic. Therefore the use of satellite products is a measure to cover the entire Arctic. However, the quality of such cloud measurements from space is not well known. The paper discusses the differences and commonalities between satellite and ground-based measurements. We conclude that the satellite dataset, with a few exceptions, can be used in the Arctic.
Basudev Swain, Marco Vountas, Adrien Deroubaix, Luca Lelli, Aishwarya Singh, Yanick Ziegler, Sachin S. Gunthe, and John P. Burrows
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-730, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-730, 2023
Preprint archived
Short summary
Short summary
Aerosols are suspensions of particles distributed in the air. Depending on their chemical composition, they scatter and/or absorb sunlight and thus cool or warm the earth's atmosphere and its surface. They also provide as a surface in the atmosphere upon which ice or liquid clouds droplets nucleate and grow. In this study, we use satellite observations and model simulations to investigate the properties of aerosols with the goal of assessing their direct and indirect role in climate change.
Meng Gao, Kirk Knobelspiesse, Bryan A. Franz, Peng-Wang Zhai, Brian Cairns, Xiaoguang Xu, and J. Vanderlei Martins
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2067–2087, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2067-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2067-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Multi-angle polarimetric measurements have been shown to greatly improve the remote sensing capability of aerosols and help atmospheric correction for ocean color retrievals. However, the uncertainty correlations among different measurement angles have not been well characterized. In this work, we provided a practical framework to evaluate the impact of the angular uncertainty correlation in retrieval results and a method to directly estimate correlation strength from retrieval residuals.
Emily D. Lenhardt, Lan Gao, Jens Redemann, Feng Xu, Sharon P. Burton, Brian Cairns, Ian Chang, Richard A. Ferrare, Chris A. Hostetler, Pablo E. Saide, Calvin Howes, Yohei Shinozuka, Snorre Stamnes, Mary Kacarab, Amie Dobracki, Jenny Wong, Steffen Freitag, and Athanasios Nenes
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2037–2054, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2037-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2037-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Small atmospheric particles, such as smoke from wildfires or pollutants from human activities, impact cloud properties, and clouds have a strong influence on climate. To better understand the distributions of these particles, we develop relationships to derive their concentrations from remote sensing measurements from an instrument called a lidar. Our method is reliable for smoke particles, and similar steps can be taken to develop relationships for other particle types.
Edward Gryspeerdt, Adam C. Povey, Roy G. Grainger, Otto Hasekamp, N. Christina Hsu, Jane P. Mulcahy, Andrew M. Sayer, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4115–4122, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4115-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4115-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The impact of aerosols on clouds is one of the largest uncertainties in the human forcing of the climate. Aerosol can increase the concentrations of droplets in clouds, but observational and model studies produce widely varying estimates of this effect. We show that these estimates can be reconciled if only polluted clouds are studied, but this is insufficient to constrain the climate impact of aerosol. The uncertainty in aerosol impact on clouds is currently driven by cases with little aerosol.
Luca Lelli, Marco Vountas, Narges Khosravi, and John Philipp Burrows
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 2579–2611, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2579-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2579-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Arctic amplification describes the recent period in which temperatures have been rising twice as fast as or more than the global average and sea ice and the Greenland ice shelf are approaching a tipping point. Hence, the Arctic ability to reflect solar energy decreases and absorption by the surface increases. Using 2 decades of complementary satellite data, we discover that clouds unexpectedly increase the pan-Arctic reflectance by increasing their liquid water content, thus cooling the Arctic.
André Valente, Shubha Sathyendranath, Vanda Brotas, Steve Groom, Michael Grant, Thomas Jackson, Andrei Chuprin, Malcolm Taberner, Ruth Airs, David Antoine, Robert Arnone, William M. Balch, Kathryn Barker, Ray Barlow, Simon Bélanger, Jean-François Berthon, Şükrü Beşiktepe, Yngve Borsheim, Astrid Bracher, Vittorio Brando, Robert J. W. Brewin, Elisabetta Canuti, Francisco P. Chavez, Andrés Cianca, Hervé Claustre, Lesley Clementson, Richard Crout, Afonso Ferreira, Scott Freeman, Robert Frouin, Carlos García-Soto, Stuart W. Gibb, Ralf Goericke, Richard Gould, Nathalie Guillocheau, Stanford B. Hooker, Chuamin Hu, Mati Kahru, Milton Kampel, Holger Klein, Susanne Kratzer, Raphael Kudela, Jesus Ledesma, Steven Lohrenz, Hubert Loisel, Antonio Mannino, Victor Martinez-Vicente, Patricia Matrai, David McKee, Brian G. Mitchell, Tiffany Moisan, Enrique Montes, Frank Muller-Karger, Aimee Neeley, Michael Novak, Leonie O'Dowd, Michael Ondrusek, Trevor Platt, Alex J. Poulton, Michel Repecaud, Rüdiger Röttgers, Thomas Schroeder, Timothy Smyth, Denise Smythe-Wright, Heidi M. Sosik, Crystal Thomas, Rob Thomas, Gavin Tilstone, Andreia Tracana, Michael Twardowski, Vincenzo Vellucci, Kenneth Voss, Jeremy Werdell, Marcel Wernand, Bozena Wojtasiewicz, Simon Wright, and Giuseppe Zibordi
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 5737–5770, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5737-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5737-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
A compiled set of in situ data is vital to evaluate the quality of ocean-colour satellite data records. Here we describe the global compilation of bio-optical in situ data (spanning from 1997 to 2021) used for the validation of the ocean-colour products from the ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (OC-CCI). The compilation merges and harmonizes several in situ data sources into a simple format that could be used directly for the evaluation of satellite-derived ocean-colour data.
Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Otto P. Hasekamp, Brian Cairns, Gregory L. Schuster, Snorre Stamnes, Michael Shook, and Luke Ziemba
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 7411–7434, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-7411-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-7411-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The strong variability in the chemistry of atmospheric particulate matter affects the amount of water aerosols absorb and their effect on climate. We present a remote sensing method to determine the amount of water in particulate matter. Its application to airborne instruments indicates that the observed aerosols have rather low water contents and low fractions of soluble particles. Future satellites will be able to yield global aerosol water uptake data.
Santiago Gassó and Kirk D. Knobelspiesse
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 13581–13605, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-13581-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-13581-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Atmospheric particles interact with light resulting in observable optical polarization. Thus, we can learn about their composition from space. New satellite sensor technology measures full polarization of reflected sunlight. This paper considers circular polarization, an overlooked category of polarization with distinctive features that could bring new insights. We review existing literature and make novel computations to consider this previously underappreciated category of polarization.
Meng Gao, Kirk Knobelspiesse, Bryan A. Franz, Peng-Wang Zhai, Andrew M. Sayer, Amir Ibrahim, Brian Cairns, Otto Hasekamp, Yongxiang Hu, Vanderlei Martins, P. Jeremy Werdell, and Xiaoguang Xu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4859–4879, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4859-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4859-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
In this work, we assessed the pixel-wise retrieval uncertainties on aerosol and ocean color derived from multi-angle polarimetric measurements. Standard error propagation methods are used to compute the uncertainties. A flexible framework is proposed to evaluate how representative these uncertainties are compared with real retrieval errors. Meanwhile, to assist operational data processing, we optimized the computational speed to evaluate the retrieval uncertainties based on neural networks.
Dongwei Fu, Larry Di Girolamo, Robert M. Rauber, Greg M. McFarquhar, Stephen W. Nesbitt, Jesse Loveridge, Yulan Hong, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Brian Cairns, Mikhail D. Alexandrov, Paul Lawson, Sarah Woods, Simone Tanelli, Sebastian Schmidt, Chris Hostetler, and Amy Jo Scarino
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 8259–8285, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8259-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8259-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Satellite-retrieved cloud microphysics are widely used in climate research because of their central role in water and energy cycles. Here, we provide the first detailed investigation of retrieved cloud drop sizes from in situ and various satellite and airborne remote sensing techniques applied to real cumulus cloud fields. We conclude that the most widely used passive remote sensing method employed in climate research produces high biases of 6–8 µm (60 %–80 %) caused by 3-D radiative effects.
Matthew S. Norgren, John Wood, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Snorre A. Stamnes, Luke D. Ziemba, Ewan C. Crosbie, Michael A. Shook, A. Scott Kittelman, Samuel E. LeBlanc, Stephen Broccardo, Steffen Freitag, and Jeffrey S. Reid
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1373–1394, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1373-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1373-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
A new spectral instrument (SPN-S), with the ability to partition solar radiation into direct and diffuse components, is used in airborne settings to study the optical properties of aerosols and cirrus. It is a low-cost and mechanically simple system but has higher measurement uncertainty than existing standards. This challenge is overcome by utilizing the unique measurement capabilities to develop new retrieval techniques. Validation is done with data from two NASA airborne research campaigns.
David Painemal, Douglas Spangenberg, William L. Smith Jr., Patrick Minnis, Brian Cairns, Richard H. Moore, Ewan Crosbie, Claire Robinson, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Edward L. Winstead, and Luke Ziemba
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 6633–6646, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6633-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6633-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Cloud properties derived from satellite sensors are critical for the global monitoring of climate. This study evaluates satellite-based cloud properties over the North Atlantic using airborne data collected during NAAMES. Satellite observations of droplet size and cloud optical depth tend to compare well with NAAMES data. The analysis indicates that the satellite pixel resolution and the specific viewing geometry need to be taken into account in research applications.
Meng Gao, Bryan A. Franz, Kirk Knobelspiesse, Peng-Wang Zhai, Vanderlei Martins, Sharon Burton, Brian Cairns, Richard Ferrare, Joel Gales, Otto Hasekamp, Yongxiang Hu, Amir Ibrahim, Brent McBride, Anin Puthukkudy, P. Jeremy Werdell, and Xiaoguang Xu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 4083–4110, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4083-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4083-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Multi-angle polarimetric measurements can retrieve accurate aerosol properties over complex atmosphere and ocean systems; however, most retrieval algorithms require high computational costs. We propose a deep neural network (NN) forward model to represent the radiative transfer simulation of coupled atmosphere and ocean systems and then conduct simultaneous aerosol and ocean color retrievals on AirHARP measurements. The computational acceleration is 103 times with CPU or 104 times with GPU.
Kirk Knobelspiesse, Amir Ibrahim, Bryan Franz, Sean Bailey, Robert Levy, Ziauddin Ahmad, Joel Gales, Meng Gao, Michael Garay, Samuel Anderson, and Olga Kalashnikova
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 3233–3252, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3233-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3233-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We assessed atmospheric aerosol and ocean surface wind speed remote sensing capability with NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), using synthetic data and a Bayesian inference technique called generalized nonlinear retrieval analysis (GENRA). We found success using three aerosol parameters plus wind speed. This shows that MISR can perform an atmospheric correction for the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the same spacecraft (Terra).
Andrew M. Dzambo, Tristan L'Ecuyer, Kenneth Sinclair, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Siddhant Gupta, Greg McFarquhar, Joseph R. O'Brien, Brian Cairns, Andrzej P. Wasilewski, and Mikhail Alexandrov
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 5513–5532, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5513-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5513-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
This work highlights a new algorithm using data collected from the 2016–2018 NASA ORACLES field campaign. This algorithm synthesizes cloud and rain measurements to attain estimates of cloud and precipitation properties over the southeast Atlantic Ocean. Estimates produced by this algorithm compare well against in situ estimates. Increased rain fractions and rain rates are found in regions of atmospheric instability. This dataset can be used to explore aerosol–cloud–precipitation interactions.
Jens Redemann, Robert Wood, Paquita Zuidema, Sarah J. Doherty, Bernadette Luna, Samuel E. LeBlanc, Michael S. Diamond, Yohei Shinozuka, Ian Y. Chang, Rei Ueyama, Leonhard Pfister, Ju-Mee Ryoo, Amie N. Dobracki, Arlindo M. da Silva, Karla M. Longo, Meloë S. Kacenelenbogen, Connor J. Flynn, Kristina Pistone, Nichola M. Knox, Stuart J. Piketh, James M. Haywood, Paola Formenti, Marc Mallet, Philip Stier, Andrew S. Ackerman, Susanne E. Bauer, Ann M. Fridlind, Gregory R. Carmichael, Pablo E. Saide, Gonzalo A. Ferrada, Steven G. Howell, Steffen Freitag, Brian Cairns, Brent N. Holben, Kirk D. Knobelspiesse, Simone Tanelli, Tristan S. L'Ecuyer, Andrew M. Dzambo, Ousmane O. Sy, Greg M. McFarquhar, Michael R. Poellot, Siddhant Gupta, Joseph R. O'Brien, Athanasios Nenes, Mary Kacarab, Jenny P. S. Wong, Jennifer D. Small-Griswold, Kenneth L. Thornhill, David Noone, James R. Podolske, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Peter Pilewskie, Hong Chen, Sabrina P. Cochrane, Arthur J. Sedlacek, Timothy J. Lang, Eric Stith, Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer, Richard A. Ferrare, Sharon P. Burton, Chris A. Hostetler, David J. Diner, Felix C. Seidel, Steven E. Platnick, Jeffrey S. Myers, Kerry G. Meyer, Douglas A. Spangenberg, Hal Maring, and Lan Gao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 1507–1563, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1507-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1507-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Southern Africa produces significant biomass burning emissions whose impacts on regional and global climate are poorly understood. ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) is a 5-year NASA investigation designed to study the key processes that determine these climate impacts. The main purpose of this paper is to familiarize the broader scientific community with the ORACLES project, the dataset it produced, and the most important initial findings.
Cheng Chen, Oleg Dubovik, David Fuertes, Pavel Litvinov, Tatyana Lapyonok, Anton Lopatin, Fabrice Ducos, Yevgeny Derimian, Maurice Herman, Didier Tanré, Lorraine A. Remer, Alexei Lyapustin, Andrew M. Sayer, Robert C. Levy, N. Christina Hsu, Jacques Descloitres, Lei Li, Benjamin Torres, Yana Karol, Milagros Herrera, Marcos Herreras, Michael Aspetsberger, Moritz Wanzenboeck, Lukas Bindreiter, Daniel Marth, Andreas Hangler, and Christian Federspiel
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 3573–3620, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3573-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3573-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Aerosol products obtained from POLDER/PARASOL processed by the GRASP algorithm have been released. The entire archive of PARASOL/GRASP aerosol products is evaluated against AERONET and compared with MODIS (DT, DB and MAIAC), as well as PARASOL/Operational products. PARASOL/GRASP aerosol products provide spectral 443–1020 nm AOD correlating well with AERONET with a maximum bias of 0.02. Finally, GRASP shows capability to derive detailed spectral properties, including aerosol absorption.
Johannes Quaas, Antti Arola, Brian Cairns, Matthew Christensen, Hartwig Deneke, Annica M. L. Ekman, Graham Feingold, Ann Fridlind, Edward Gryspeerdt, Otto Hasekamp, Zhanqing Li, Antti Lipponen, Po-Lun Ma, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Athanasios Nenes, Joyce E. Penner, Daniel Rosenfeld, Roland Schrödner, Kenneth Sinclair, Odran Sourdeval, Philip Stier, Matthias Tesche, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15079–15099, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15079-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15079-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Anthropogenic pollution particles – aerosols – serve as cloud condensation nuclei and thus increase cloud droplet concentration and the clouds' reflection of sunlight (a cooling effect on climate). This Twomey effect is poorly constrained by models and requires satellite data for better quantification. The review summarizes the challenges in properly doing so and outlines avenues for progress towards a better use of aerosol retrievals and better retrievals of droplet concentrations.
Marc Mallet, Fabien Solmon, Pierre Nabat, Nellie Elguindi, Fabien Waquet, Dominique Bouniol, Andrew Mark Sayer, Kerry Meyer, Romain Roehrig, Martine Michou, Paquita Zuidema, Cyrille Flamant, Jens Redemann, and Paola Formenti
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 13191–13216, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13191-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13191-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents numerical simulations using two regional climate models to study the impact of biomass fire plumes from central Africa on the radiative balance of this region. The results indicate that biomass fires can either warm the regional climate when they are located above low clouds or cool it when they are located above land. They can also alter sea and land surface temperatures by decreasing solar radiation at the surface. Finally, they can also modify the atmospheric dynamics.
Nick Schutgens, Andrew M. Sayer, Andreas Heckel, Christina Hsu, Hiren Jethva, Gerrit de Leeuw, Peter J. T. Leonard, Robert C. Levy, Antti Lipponen, Alexei Lyapustin, Peter North, Thomas Popp, Caroline Poulsen, Virginia Sawyer, Larisa Sogacheva, Gareth Thomas, Omar Torres, Yujie Wang, Stefan Kinne, Michael Schulz, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12431–12457, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12431-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12431-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
We intercompare 14 different datasets of satellite observations of aerosol. Such measurements are challenging but also provide the best opportunity to globally observe an atmospheric component strongly related to air pollution and climate change. Our study shows that most datasets perform similarly well on a global scale but that locally errors can be quite different. We develop a technique to estimate satellite errors everywhere, even in the absence of surface reference data.
Adeyemi A. Adebiyi, Paquita Zuidema, Ian Chang, Sharon P. Burton, and Brian Cairns
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 11025–11043, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11025-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11025-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Over the southeast Atlantic, interactions between the low-level clouds and the overlying smoke aerosols have previously been highlighted, but no study has yet focused on the presence of the mid-level clouds that complicate the aerosol–cloud interactions. Here we show that these optically thin super-cooled mid-level clouds are relatively common, and they frequently occur at the top of the smoke layer between August and October with significant radiative impacts on the low-level clouds.
Kirk Knobelspiesse, Henrique M. J. Barbosa, Christine Bradley, Carol Bruegge, Brian Cairns, Gao Chen, Jacek Chowdhary, Anthony Cook, Antonio Di Noia, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, David J. Diner, Richard Ferrare, Guangliang Fu, Meng Gao, Michael Garay, Johnathan Hair, David Harper, Gerard van Harten, Otto Hasekamp, Mark Helmlinger, Chris Hostetler, Olga Kalashnikova, Andrew Kupchock, Karla Longo De Freitas, Hal Maring, J. Vanderlei Martins, Brent McBride, Matthew McGill, Ken Norlin, Anin Puthukkudy, Brian Rheingans, Jeroen Rietjens, Felix C. Seidel, Arlindo da Silva, Martijn Smit, Snorre Stamnes, Qian Tan, Sebastian Val, Andrzej Wasilewski, Feng Xu, Xiaoguang Xu, and John Yorks
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2183–2208, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2183-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2183-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
The Aerosol Characterization from Polarimeter and Lidar (ACEPOL) field campaign is a resource for the next generation of spaceborne multi-angle polarimeter (MAP) and lidar missions. Conducted in the fall of 2017 from the Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California, four MAP instruments and two lidars were flown on the high-altitude ER-2 aircraft over a variety of scene types and ground assets. Data are freely available to the public and useful for algorithm development and testing.
Meng Gao, Peng-Wang Zhai, Bryan A. Franz, Kirk Knobelspiesse, Amir Ibrahim, Brian Cairns, Susanne E. Craig, Guangliang Fu, Otto Hasekamp, Yongxiang Hu, and P. Jeremy Werdell
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 3939–3956, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3939-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3939-2020, 2020
Daniel J. Miller, Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer, Kirk Knobelspiesse, Jens Redemann, Brian Cairns, Mikhail Alexandrov, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, and Andrzej Wasilewski
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 3447–3470, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3447-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3447-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
A neural network (NN) is developed and used to retrieve cloud microphysical properties from multiangular and multispectral polarimetric remote sensing observations. The NN is applied to research scanning polarimeter (RSP) observations obtained during the ORACLES field campaign and compared to other co-located remote sensing retrievals of cloud effective radius and optical thickness. A NN approach can advance more complex iterative search retrieval algorithms by providing a quick initial guess.
Alexander Sinyuk, Brent N. Holben, Thomas F. Eck, David M. Giles, Ilya Slutsker, Sergey Korkin, Joel S. Schafer, Alexander Smirnov, Mikhail Sorokin, and Alexei Lyapustin
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 3375–3411, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3375-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3375-2020, 2020
Larisa Sogacheva, Thomas Popp, Andrew M. Sayer, Oleg Dubovik, Michael J. Garay, Andreas Heckel, N. Christina Hsu, Hiren Jethva, Ralph A. Kahn, Pekka Kolmonen, Miriam Kosmale, Gerrit de Leeuw, Robert C. Levy, Pavel Litvinov, Alexei Lyapustin, Peter North, Omar Torres, and Antti Arola
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 2031–2056, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2031-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2031-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
The typical lifetime of a single satellite platform is on the order of 5–15 years; thus, for climate studies the usage of multiple satellite sensors should be considered.
Here we introduce and evaluate a monthly AOD merged product and AOD global and regional time series for the period 1995–2017 created from 12 individual satellite AOD products, which provide a long-term perspective on AOD changes over different regions of the globe.
Guangliang Fu, Otto Hasekamp, Jeroen Rietjens, Martijn Smit, Antonio Di Noia, Brian Cairns, Andrzej Wasilewski, David Diner, Felix Seidel, Feng Xu, Kirk Knobelspiesse, Meng Gao, Arlindo da Silva, Sharon Burton, Chris Hostetler, John Hair, and Richard Ferrare
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 553–573, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-553-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-553-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
In this paper, we present aerosol retrieval results from the ACEPOL (Aerosol Characterization from Polarimeter and Lidar) campaign, which was a joint initiative between NASA and SRON (the Netherlands Institute for Space Research). We perform aerosol retrievals from different multi-angle polarimeters employed during the ACEPOL campaign and evaluate them against ground-based AERONET measurements and High Spectral Resolution Lidar-2 (HSRL-2) measurements.
Andrew M. Sayer, Yves Govaerts, Pekka Kolmonen, Antti Lipponen, Marta Luffarelli, Tero Mielonen, Falguni Patadia, Thomas Popp, Adam C. Povey, Kerstin Stebel, and Marcin L. Witek
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 373–404, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-373-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-373-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Satellite measurements of the Earth are routinely processed to estimate useful quantities; one example is the amount of atmospheric aerosols (which are particles such as mineral dust, smoke, volcanic ash, or sea spray). As with all measurements and inferred quantities, there is some degree of uncertainty in this process.
There are various methods to estimate these uncertainties. A related question is the following: how reliable are these estimates? This paper presents a method to assess them.
Zachary Fasnacht, Alexander Vasilkov, David Haffner, Wenhan Qin, Joanna Joiner, Nickolay Krotkov, Andrew M. Sayer, and Robert Spurr
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 6749–6769, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-6749-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-6749-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
The anisotropy of Earth's surface reflection plays an important role in satellite-based retrievals of cloud, aerosol, and trace gases. Most current ultraviolet and visible satellite retrievals utilize climatological surface reflectivity databases that do not account for surface anisotropy. The GLER concept was introduced to account for such features. Here we evaluate GLER for water surfaces by comparing with OMI measurements and show that it captures these surface anisotropy features.
Andrew M. Sayer and Kirk D. Knobelspiesse
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 15023–15048, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-15023-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-15023-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Data about the Earth are routinely obtained from satellite observations, model simulations, and ground-based or other measurements. These are at different space and timescales, and it is common to average them to reduce gaps and increase ease of use. The question of how the data should be averaged depends on the underlying distribution of the quantity. This study presents a method for determining how to appropriately aggregate data and applies it to data sets about atmospheric aerosol levels.
Kristina Pistone, Jens Redemann, Sarah Doherty, Paquita Zuidema, Sharon Burton, Brian Cairns, Sabrina Cochrane, Richard Ferrare, Connor Flynn, Steffen Freitag, Steven G. Howell, Meloë Kacenelenbogen, Samuel LeBlanc, Xu Liu, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Arthur J. Sedlacek III, Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer, Yohei Shinozuka, Snorre Stamnes, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Gerard Van Harten, and Feng Xu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 9181–9208, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-9181-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-9181-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Understanding how smoke particles interact with sunlight is important in calculating their effects on climate, since some smoke is more scattering (cooling) and some is more absorbing (heating). Knowing this proportion is important for both satellite observations and climate models. We measured smoke properties in a recent aircraft-based field campaign off the west coast of Africa and present a comparison of these properties as measured using the six different, independent techniques available.
Meng Gao, Peng-Wang Zhai, Bryan A. Franz, Yongxiang Hu, Kirk Knobelspiesse, P. Jeremy Werdell, Amir Ibrahim, Brian Cairns, and Alison Chase
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 3921–3941, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3921-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3921-2019, 2019
André Valente, Shubha Sathyendranath, Vanda Brotas, Steve Groom, Michael Grant, Malcolm Taberner, David Antoine, Robert Arnone, William M. Balch, Kathryn Barker, Ray Barlow, Simon Bélanger, Jean-François Berthon, Şükrü Beşiktepe, Yngve Borsheim, Astrid Bracher, Vittorio Brando, Elisabetta Canuti, Francisco Chavez, Andrés Cianca, Hervé Claustre, Lesley Clementson, Richard Crout, Robert Frouin, Carlos García-Soto, Stuart W. Gibb, Richard Gould, Stanford B. Hooker, Mati Kahru, Milton Kampel, Holger Klein, Susanne Kratzer, Raphael Kudela, Jesus Ledesma, Hubert Loisel, Patricia Matrai, David McKee, Brian G. Mitchell, Tiffany Moisan, Frank Muller-Karger, Leonie O'Dowd, Michael Ondrusek, Trevor Platt, Alex J. Poulton, Michel Repecaud, Thomas Schroeder, Timothy Smyth, Denise Smythe-Wright, Heidi M. Sosik, Michael Twardowski, Vincenzo Vellucci, Kenneth Voss, Jeremy Werdell, Marcel Wernand, Simon Wright, and Giuseppe Zibordi
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 11, 1037–1068, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1037-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1037-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
A compiled set of in situ data is useful to evaluate the quality of ocean-colour satellite data records. Here we describe the compilation of global bio-optical in situ data (spanning from 1997 to 2018) used for the validation of the ocean-colour products from the ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (OC-CCI). The compilation merges and harmonizes several in situ data sources into a simple format that could be used directly for the evaluation of satellite-derived ocean-colour data.
Andrew M. Sayer, N. Christina Hsu, Jaehwa Lee, Woogyung V. Kim, Sharon Burton, Marta A. Fenn, Richard A. Ferrare, Meloë Kacenelenbogen, Samuel LeBlanc, Kristina Pistone, Jens Redemann, Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer, Yohei Shinozuka, and Si-Chee Tsay
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 3595–3627, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3595-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3595-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Aerosols are small particles in the atmosphere such as dust or smoke. They are routinely monitored by satellites due to their importance for climate and air quality. However aerosols above clouds are more difficult to monitor. This study describes an improvement to a technique to monitor light-absorbing aerosols above clouds from four Earth-orbiting satellite instruments. The improved method is evaluated using data from the ORACLES field campaign, which measured these aerosols from aircraft.
Marc Mallet, Pierre Nabat, Paquita Zuidema, Jens Redemann, Andrew Mark Sayer, Martin Stengel, Sebastian Schmidt, Sabrina Cochrane, Sharon Burton, Richard Ferrare, Kerry Meyer, Pablo Saide, Hiren Jethva, Omar Torres, Robert Wood, David Saint Martin, Romain Roehrig, Christina Hsu, and Paola Formenti
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 4963–4990, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4963-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4963-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
The model is able to represent LWP but not the LCF. AOD is consistent over the continent but also over ocean (ACAOD). Differences are observed in SSA due to the absence of internal mixing in ALADIN-Climate. A significant regional gradient of the forcing at TOA is observed. An intense positive forcing is simulated over Gabon. Results highlight the significant effect of enhanced moisture on BBA extinction. The surface dimming modifies the energy budget.
Hendrik Andersen, Jan Cermak, Irina Solodovnik, Luca Lelli, and Roland Vogt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 4383–4392, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4383-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4383-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Fog and low clouds (FLCs) are an essential but poorly understood component of Namib-region climate. This study uses observations from multiple satellite platforms and ground-based measurements to coherently characterize Namib-region FLC patterns. Findings concerning the seasonal cycle of the vertical structure and the diurnal cycle of FLCs lead to a new conceptual model of the spatiotemporal dynamics of FLCs in the Namib and help to improve the understanding of underlying processes.
Antonio Di Noia, Otto P. Hasekamp, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, and Zhibo Zhang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 1697–1716, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1697-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1697-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
We present a neural network algorithm for the retrieval of cloud physical properties from multi-angle polarimetric measurements. We have trained the algorithm on a large dataset of synthetic measurements and applied it to a year of POLDER-3 data. A comparison against MODIS cloud products reveals that our algorithm is capable of performing cloud property retrievals on a global scale and possibly improves the estimates of cloud effective radius over land with respect to existing POLDER-3 products.
David M. Giles, Alexander Sinyuk, Mikhail G. Sorokin, Joel S. Schafer, Alexander Smirnov, Ilya Slutsker, Thomas F. Eck, Brent N. Holben, Jasper R. Lewis, James R. Campbell, Ellsworth J. Welton, Sergey V. Korkin, and Alexei I. Lyapustin
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 169–209, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-169-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-169-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Clouds or instrumental anomalies may perturb ground-based solar measurements used to calculate aerosol optical depth (AOD). This study presents a new algorithm of automated near-real-time (NRT) quality controls with improved cloud screening for AERONET AOD measurements. Results from the new and old algorithms have excellent agreement for the highest-quality AOD level, while the new algorithm provides higher-quality NRT AOD for applications such as data assimilation and satellite evaluation.
Alexei Lyapustin, Yujie Wang, Sergey Korkin, and Dong Huang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 5741–5765, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5741-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5741-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
MAIAC algorithm used for the MODIS C6 processing is described. MAIAC combines time series analysis and pixel/image-based processing to improve the accuracy of cloud detection, aerosol retrievals and atmospheric correction. MAIAC offers an interdisciplinary suite of atmospheric, land surface and snow products. Due to generally high quality, high resolution and high coverage, MAIAC AOD and surface reflectance/BRDF have been widely used for air quality and land research and applications.
Kirk Knobelspiesse and Sreeja Nag
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3935–3954, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3935-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3935-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
We test if small satellites flying in formation can be used for multi-angle aerosol remote sensing. So far, this has only been done with multiple views on one satellite. Single-view angle satellites flying in formation are a technically feasible alternative, although with different geometries. Using Bayesian information content analysis, we find such satellites equally capable. For aerosol remote sensing, the number of viewing angles is the most important.
Daniel J. Miller, Zhibo Zhang, Steven Platnick, Andrew S. Ackerman, Frank Werner, Celine Cornet, and Kirk Knobelspiesse
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3689–3715, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3689-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3689-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
Prior satellite comparisons of bispectral and polarimetric cloud droplet size retrievals exhibited systematic biases. However, similar airborne instrument retrievals have been found to be quite similar to one another. This study explains this discrepancy in terms of differing sensitivity to vertical profile, as well as spatial and angular resolution. This is accomplished by using a satellite retrieval simulator – an LES cloud model coupled to radiative transfer and cloud retrieval algorithms.
Arve Kylling, Sophie Vandenbussche, Virginie Capelle, Juan Cuesta, Lars Klüser, Luca Lelli, Thomas Popp, Kerstin Stebel, and Pepijn Veefkind
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 2911–2936, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-2911-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-2911-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
The aerosol layer height is one of four aerosol parameters which is needed to enhance our understanding of aerosols' role in the climate system. Both active and passive measurement methods may be used to estimate the aerosol layer height. Aerosol height estimates made from passive infrared and solar satellite sensors measurements are compared with satellite-borne lidar estimates. There is considerable variation between the retrieved dust heights and how they compare with the lidar.
Antonio Di Noia, Otto P. Hasekamp, Lianghai Wu, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Brian Cairns, and John E. Yorks
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 4235–4252, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4235-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4235-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
In this paper an algorithm for the retrieval of aerosol properties from NASA Research Scanning Polarimeter (RSP) data is presented. An artificial neural network is used to produce a first estimate of the aerosol properties, which is then improved using an iterative retrieval scheme based on Phillips–Tikhonov regularization. Using the neural network retrievals as a first guess for the Phillips–Tikhonov improved the retrieval convergence, confirming results previously found on ground-based data.
Kenneth Sinclair, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Brian Cairns, John Yorks, Andrzej Wasilewski, and Matthew McGill
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 2361–2375, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2361-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2361-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
We present a multi-angular contrast approach to retrieve cloud top height (CTH) using photogrammetry. We demonstrate the method’s ability to retrieve heights of multiple cloud layers within single footprints, using the multiple views available for each footprint. This paper provides an in-depth description and performance analysis of the CTH retrieval technique and the retrieved cloud heights are evaluated using collocated data from the Cloud Physics Lidar.
Andrew M. Sayer, N. Christina Hsu, Corey Bettenhausen, Robert E. Holz, Jaehwa Lee, Greg Quinn, and Paolo Veglio
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 1425–1444, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1425-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1425-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
The satellite instrument VIIRS is being used to carry on observations of the Earth made by older satellites like MODIS. Data sets created from these satellite observations depend on the quality of the satellite instruments' calibration. This paper describes a comparison between the calibration of these two sensors. MODIS is believed to be more reliable and so VIIRS is corrected to bring it in line with MODIS. These corrections are shown to improve the quality of VIIRS aerosol data.
Sharon P. Burton, Eduard Chemyakin, Xu Liu, Kirk Knobelspiesse, Snorre Stamnes, Patricia Sawamura, Richard H. Moore, Chris A. Hostetler, and Richard A. Ferrare
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 5555–5574, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5555-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5555-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
Retrievals of aerosol microphysics exist for ground-based, airborne, and future space-borne lidar measurements. We investigate the information content of a lidar measurement system, using only a forward model but no explicit inversion. The simplified aerosol used here is applicable as a best case for all retrievals in the absence of additional constraints. We report (1) information content of the measurements; (2) uncertainties on the retrieved parameters; and (3) sources of compensating errors.
Ann M. Fridlind, Rachel Atlas, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Junshik Um, Greg M. McFarquhar, Andrew S. Ackerman, Elisabeth J. Moyer, and R. Paul Lawson
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 7251–7283, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-7251-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-7251-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
Images of crystals within mid-latitude cirrus clouds are used to derive consistent ice physical and optical properties for a detailed cloud microphysics model, including size-dependent mass, projected area, and fall speed. Based on habits found, properties are derived for bullet rosettes, their aggregates, and crystals with irregular shapes. Derived bullet rosette fall speeds are substantially greater than reported in past studies, owing to differences in mass, area, or diameter representation.
André Valente, Shubha Sathyendranath, Vanda Brotas, Steve Groom, Michael Grant, Malcolm Taberner, David Antoine, Robert Arnone, William M. Balch, Kathryn Barker, Ray Barlow, Simon Bélanger, Jean-François Berthon, Şükrü Beşiktepe, Vittorio Brando, Elisabetta Canuti, Francisco Chavez, Hervé Claustre, Richard Crout, Robert Frouin, Carlos García-Soto, Stuart W. Gibb, Richard Gould, Stanford Hooker, Mati Kahru, Holger Klein, Susanne Kratzer, Hubert Loisel, David McKee, Brian G. Mitchell, Tiffany Moisan, Frank Muller-Karger, Leonie O'Dowd, Michael Ondrusek, Alex J. Poulton, Michel Repecaud, Timothy Smyth, Heidi M. Sosik, Michael Twardowski, Kenneth Voss, Jeremy Werdell, Marcel Wernand, and Giuseppe Zibordi
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 8, 235–252, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-8-235-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-8-235-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
A compiled set of in situ data is important to evaluate the quality of ocean-colour satellite data records. Here we describe the compilation of global bio-optical in situ data (spanning from 1997 to 2012) used for the validation of the ocean-colour products from the ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (OC-CCI). The compilation merges and harmonizes several in situ data sources into a simple format that could be used directly for the evaluation of satellite-derived ocean-colour data.
Joel McCorkel, Brian Cairns, and Andrzej Wasilewski
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 955–962, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-955-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-955-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
The transfer and maintenance of international radiometric standards to satellite remote-sensing instruments is a labor-intensive and costly one. The goal is to provide specific examples for calibration implementation for a potential instrument mission and, with this, advance debate on the roles that the various satellite calibration techniques play in providing the best radiometric standards for Earth-observing sensors.
Kai-Uwe Eichmann, Luca Lelli, Christian von Savigny, Harjinder Sembhi, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 793–815, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-793-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-793-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
Height-resolved limb radiance spectra of the satellite instrument SCIAMACHY are used to retrieve cloud top heights with a colour index method. Clouds are detectable from the lower to the uppermost troposphere. These cloud heights help to improve the trace gas retrieval for the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. Comparisons with other data sets have shown good agreement. As clouds and aerosols are not distinguishable, lower stratospheric volcanic aerosol clouds are detected in some years.
A. M. Sayer, N. C. Hsu, and C. Bettenhausen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 5277–5288, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-5277-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-5277-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
MODIS is a satellite sensor widely used in Earth science. Its scanning geometry results in a distortion called the ‘bow-tie effect’, which means that, depending on the location of a pixel relative to the satellite ground track, the size and shape of the pixel may be distorted. This affects data such as aerosol optical depth (AOD) derived from the measurements. This paper illustrates the bow-tie disortion’s effect on AOD and presents techniques to restore AOD data products to a more uniform grid
B. Nechad, K. Ruddick, T. Schroeder, K. Oubelkheir, D. Blondeau-Patissier, N. Cherukuru, V. Brando, A. Dekker, L. Clementson, A. C. Banks, S. Maritorena, P. J. Werdell, C. Sá, V. Brotas, I. Caballero de Frutos, Y.-H. Ahn, S. Salama, G. Tilstone, V. Martinez-Vicente, D. Foley, M. McKibben, J. Nahorniak, T. Peterson, A. Siliò-Calzada, R. Röttgers, Z. Lee, M. Peters, and C. Brockmann
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 7, 319–348, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-7-319-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-7-319-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
The CoastColour Round Robin (CCRR) project (European Space Agency) was designed to set up the first database for remote-sensing algorithm testing and accuracy assessment of water quality parameter retrieval in coastal waters, from satellite imagery. This paper analyses the CCRR database, which includes in situ bio-geochemical and optical measurements in various water types, match-up reflectance products from the MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS), and radiative transfer simulations.
M. Ottaviani, B. van Diedenhoven, and B. Cairns
The Cryosphere, 9, 1933–1942, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1933-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1933-2015, 2015
L. Wu, O. Hasekamp, B. van Diedenhoven, and B. Cairns
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 2625–2638, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-2625-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-2625-2015, 2015
K. Knobelspiesse, B. van Diedenhoven, A. Marshak, S. Dunagan, B. Holben, and I. Slutsker
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 1537–1554, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-1537-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-1537-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
We test if ground-based sun photometers/radiometers like those in the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) can use the polarization sensitivity of some instruments for improved cloud optical property retrieval. Our radiative transfer simulations show that the direction of linear polarization indicates cloud thermodynamic phase for optically thin clouds. In practice, data analysis shows a weak response with AERONET instruments, most likely due to noise and orientation/calibration ambiguity.
A. M. Sayer, N. C. Hsu, T. F. Eck, A. Smirnov, and B. N. Holben
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 11493–11523, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-11493-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-11493-2014, 2014
S. K. Ebmeier, A. M. Sayer, R. G. Grainger, T. A. Mather, and E. Carboni
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 10601–10618, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-10601-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-10601-2014, 2014
L. Lelli, A. A. Kokhanovsky, V. V. Rozanov, M. Vountas, and J. P. Burrows
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 5679–5692, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-5679-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-5679-2014, 2014
M. Chin, T. Diehl, Q. Tan, J. M. Prospero, R. A. Kahn, L. A. Remer, H. Yu, A. M. Sayer, H. Bian, I. V. Geogdzhayev, B. N. Holben, S. G. Howell, B. J. Huebert, N. C. Hsu, D. Kim, T. L. Kucsera, R. C. Levy, M. I. Mishchenko, X. Pan, P. K. Quinn, G. L. Schuster, D. G. Streets, S. A. Strode, O. Torres, and X.-P. Zhao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 3657–3690, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-3657-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-3657-2014, 2014
R. C. Levy, S. Mattoo, L. A. Munchak, L. A. Remer, A. M. Sayer, F. Patadia, and N. C. Hsu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 2989–3034, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-2989-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-2989-2013, 2013
B. van Diedenhoven, B. Cairns, A. M. Fridlind, A. S. Ackerman, and T. J. Garrett
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 3185–3203, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3185-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3185-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Clouds | Technique: Remote Sensing | Topic: Data Processing and Information Retrieval
PEAKO and peakTree: tools for detecting and interpreting peaks in cloud radar Doppler spectra – capabilities and limitations
An advanced spatial coregistration of cloud properties for the atmospheric Sentinel missions: application to TROPOMI
Contrail altitude estimation using GOES-16 ABI data and deep learning
The Ice Cloud Imager: retrieval of frozen water column properties
Supercooled liquid water cloud classification using lidar backscatter peak properties
Marine cloud base height retrieval from MODIS cloud properties using machine learning
How well can brightness temperature differences of spaceborne imagers help to detect cloud phase? A sensitivity analysis regarding cloud phase and related cloud properties
ampycloud: an open-source algorithm to determine cloud base heights and sky coverage fractions from ceilometer data
Simulation and detection efficiency analysis for measurements of polar mesospheric clouds using a spaceborne wide-field-of-view ultraviolet imager
The Chalmers Cloud Ice Climatology: retrieval implementation and validation
The algorithm of microphysical-parameter profiles of aerosol and small cloud droplets based on the dual-wavelength lidar data
Dual-frequency (Ka-band and G-band) radar estimates of liquid water content profiles in shallow clouds
Bayesian cloud-top phase determination for Meteosat Second Generation
Lidar–radar synergistic method to retrieve ice, supercooled water and mixed-phase cloud properties
Deriving cloud droplet number concentration from surface-based remote sensors with an emphasis on lidar measurements
A random forest algorithm for the prediction of cloud liquid water content from combined CloudSat–CALIPSO observations
Using machine learning algorithm to retrieve cloud fraction based on FY-4A AGRI observations
Identification of ice-over-water multilayer clouds using multispectral satellite data in an artificial neural network
A new approach to crystal habit retrieval from far-infrared spectral radiance measurements
Severe hail detection with C-band dual-polarisation radars using convolutional neural networks
Multiple-scattering effects on single-wavelength lidar sounding of multi-layered clouds
Optimal estimation of cloud properties from thermal infrared observations with a combination of deep learning and radiative transfer simulation
Retrieval of cloud fraction and optical thickness from multi-angle polarization observations
Cancellation of cloud shadow effects in the absorbing aerosol index retrieval algorithm of TROPOMI
A cloud-by-cloud approach for studying aerosol–cloud interaction in satellite observations
Infrared Radiometric Image Classification and Segmentation of Cloud Structure Using Deep-learning Framework for Ground-based Infrared Thermal Camera Observations
Geometrical and optical properties of cirrus clouds in Barcelona, Spain: analysis with the two-way transmittance method of 4 years of lidar measurements
Determination of the vertical distribution of in-cloud particle shape using SLDR-mode 35 GHz scanning cloud radar
Artificial intelligence (AI)-derived 3D cloud tomography from geostationary 2D satellite data
The EarthCARE mission: science data processing chain overview
3-D Cloud Masking Across a Broad Swath using Multi-angle Polarimetry and Deep Learning
Cloud optical and physical properties retrieval from EarthCARE multi-spectral imager: the M-COP products
Cloud top heights and aerosol columnar properties from combined EarthCARE lidar and imager observations: the AM-CTH and AM-ACD products
Raman lidar-derived optical and microphysical properties of ice crystals within thin Arctic clouds during PARCS campaign
Evaluation of four ground-based retrievals of cloud droplet number concentration in marine stratocumulus with aircraft in situ measurements
Deep convective cloud system size and structure across the global tropics and subtropics
A neural-network-based method for generating synthetic 1.6 µm near-infrared satellite images
Numerical model generation of test frames for pre-launch studies of EarthCARE's retrieval algorithms and data management system
Segmentation of polarimetric radar imagery using statistical texture
Retrieval of surface solar irradiance from satellite imagery using machine learning: pitfalls and perspectives
Retrieving 3D distributions of atmospheric particles using Atmospheric Tomography with 3D Radiative Transfer – Part 2: Local optimization
Particle inertial effects on radar Doppler spectra simulation
Detection of aerosol and cloud features for the EarthCARE atmospheric lidar (ATLID): the ATLID FeatureMask (A-FM) product
A unified synergistic retrieval of clouds, aerosols, and precipitation from EarthCARE: the ACM-CAP product
Incorporating EarthCARE observations into a multi-lidar cloud climate record: the ATLID (Atmospheric Lidar) cloud climate product
Introduction to EarthCARE synthetic data using a global storm-resolving simulation
Validation of a camera-based intra-hour irradiance nowcasting model using synthetic cloud data
Liquid cloud optical property retrieval and associated uncertainties using multi-angular and bispectral measurements of the airborne radiometer OSIRIS
Global evaluation of Doppler velocity errors of EarthCARE cloud-profiling radar using a global storm-resolving simulation
Cloud and precipitation microphysical retrievals from the EarthCARE Cloud Profiling Radar: the C-CLD product
Teresa Vogl, Martin Radenz, Fabiola Ramelli, Rosa Gierens, and Heike Kalesse-Los
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6547–6568, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6547-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6547-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
In this study, we present a toolkit of two Python algorithms to extract information from Doppler spectra measured by ground-based cloud radars. In these Doppler spectra, several peaks can be formed due to populations of droplets/ice particles with different fall velocities coexisting in the same measurement time and height. The two algorithms can detect peaks and assign them to certain particle types, such as small cloud droplets or fast-falling ice particles like graupel.
Athina Argyrouli, Diego Loyola, Fabian Romahn, Ronny Lutz, Víctor Molina García, Pascal Hedelt, Klaus-Peter Heue, and Richard Siddans
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6345–6367, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6345-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6345-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This paper describes a new treatment of the spatial misregistration of cloud properties for Sentinel-5 Precursor, when the footprints of different spectral bands are not perfectly aligned. The methodology exploits synergies between spectrometers and imagers, like TROPOMI and VIIRS. The largest improvements have been identified for heterogeneous scenes at cloud edges. This approach is generic and can also be applied to future Sentinel-4 and Sentinel-5 instruments.
Vincent R. Meijer, Sebastian D. Eastham, Ian A. Waitz, and Steven R. H. Barrett
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6145–6162, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6145-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6145-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Aviation's climate impact is partly due to contrails: the clouds that form behind aircraft and which can linger for hours under certain atmospheric conditions. Accurately forecasting these conditions could allow aircraft to avoid forming these contrails and thus reduce their environmental footprint. Our research uses deep learning to identify three-dimensional contrail locations in two-dimensional satellite imagery, which can be used to assess and improve these forecasts.
Eleanor May, Bengt Rydberg, Inderpreet Kaur, Vinia Mattioli, Hanna Hallborn, and Patrick Eriksson
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5957–5987, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5957-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5957-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The upcoming Ice Cloud Imager (ICI) mission is set to improve measurements of atmospheric ice through passive microwave and sub-millimetre wave observations. In this study, we perform detailed simulations of ICI observations. Machine learning is used to characterise the atmospheric ice present for a given simulated observation. This study acts as a final pre-launch assessment of ICI's capability to measure atmospheric ice, providing valuable information to climate and weather applications.
Luke Edgar Whitehead, Adrian James McDonald, and Adrien Guyot
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5765–5784, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5765-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5765-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Supercooled liquid water cloud is important to represent in weather and climate models, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere. Previous work has developed a new machine learning method for measuring supercooled liquid water in Antarctic clouds using simple lidar observations. We evaluate this technique using a lidar dataset from Christchurch, New Zealand, and develop an updated algorithm for accurate supercooled liquid water detection at mid-latitudes.
Julien Lenhardt, Johannes Quaas, and Dino Sejdinovic
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5655–5677, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5655-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5655-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Clouds play a key role in the regulation of the Earth's climate. Aspects like the height of their base are of essential interest to quantify their radiative effects but remain difficult to derive from satellite data. In this study, we combine observations from the surface and satellite retrievals of cloud properties to build a robust and accurate method to retrieve the cloud base height, based on a computer vision model and ordinal regression.
Johanna Mayer, Bernhard Mayer, Luca Bugliaro, Ralf Meerkötter, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5161–5185, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5161-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5161-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This study uses radiative transfer calculations to characterize the relation of two satellite channel combinations (namely infrared window brightness temperature differences – BTDs – of SEVIRI) to the thermodynamic cloud phase. A sensitivity analysis reveals the complex interplay of cloud parameters and their contribution to the observed phase dependence of BTDs. This knowledge helps to design optimal cloud-phase retrievals and to understand their potential and limitations.
Frédéric P. A. Vogt, Loris Foresti, Daniel Regenass, Sophie Réthoré, Néstor Tarin Burriel, Mervyn Bibby, Przemysław Juda, Simone Balmelli, Tobias Hanselmann, Pieter du Preez, and Dirk Furrer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4891–4914, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4891-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4891-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
ampycloud is a new algorithm developed at MeteoSwiss to characterize the height and sky coverage fraction of cloud layers above aerodromes via ceilometer data. This algorithm was devised as part of a larger effort to fully automate the creation of meteorological aerodrome reports (METARs) at Swiss civil airports. The ampycloud algorithm is implemented as a Python package that is made publicly available to the community under the 3-Clause BSD license.
Ke Ren, Haiyang Gao, Shuqi Niu, Shaoyang Sun, Leilei Kou, Yanqing Xie, Liguo Zhang, and Lingbing Bu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4825–4842, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4825-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4825-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Ultraviolet imaging technology has significantly advanced the research and development of polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs). In this study, we proposed the wide-field-of-view ultraviolet imager (WFUI) and built a forward model to evaluate the detection capability and efficiency. The results demonstrate that the WFUI performs well in PMC detection and has high detection efficiency. The relationship between ice water content and detection efficiency follows an exponential function distribution.
Adrià Amell, Simon Pfreundschuh, and Patrick Eriksson
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4337–4368, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4337-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4337-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The representation of clouds in numerical weather and climate models remains a major challenge that is difficult to address because of the limitations of currently available data records of cloud properties. In this work, we address this issue by using machine learning to extract novel information on ice clouds from a long record of satellite observations. Through extensive validation, we show that this novel approach provides surprisingly accurate estimates of clouds and their properties.
Huige Di, Xinhong Wang, Ning Chen, Jing Guo, Wenhui Xin, Shichun Li, Yan Guo, Qing Yan, Yufeng Wang, and Dengxin Hua
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4183–4196, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4183-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4183-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This study proposes an inversion method for atmospheric-aerosol or cloud microphysical parameters based on dual-wavelength lidar data. It is suitable for the inversion of uniformly mixed and single-property aerosol layers or small cloud droplets. For aerosol particles, the inversion range that this algorithm can achieve is 0.3–1.7 μm. For cloud droplets, it is 1.0–10 μm. This algorithm can quickly obtain the microphysical parameters of atmospheric particles and has better robustness.
Juan M. Socuellamos, Raquel Rodriguez Monje, Matthew D. Lebsock, Ken B. Cooper, and Pavlos Kollias
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2090, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2090, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This article presents a novel technique to estimate the liquid water content (LWC) in shallow warm clouds using a pair of collocated Ka-band (35 GHz) and G-band (239 GHz) radars. We demonstrate that the use of a G-band radar allows to retrieve the LWC with 3 times better accuracy than previous works reported in the literature, providing improved ability to understand the vertical profile of the LWC and characterize microphysical and dynamical processes more precisely in shallow clouds.
Johanna Mayer, Luca Bugliaro, Bernhard Mayer, Dennis Piontek, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4015–4039, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4015-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4015-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
ProPS (PRObabilistic cloud top Phase retrieval for SEVIRI) is a method to detect clouds and their thermodynamic phase with a geostationary satellite, distinguishing between clear sky and ice, mixed-phase, supercooled and warm liquid clouds. It uses a Bayesian approach based on the lidar–radar product DARDAR. The method allows studying cloud phases, especially mixed-phase and supercooled clouds, rarely observed from geostationary satellites. This can be used for comparison with climate models.
Clémantyne Aubry, Julien Delanoë, Silke Groß, Florian Ewald, Frédéric Tridon, Olivier Jourdan, and Guillaume Mioche
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3863–3881, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3863-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3863-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Radar–lidar synergy is used to retrieve ice, supercooled water and mixed-phase cloud properties, making the most of the radar sensitivity to ice crystals and the lidar sensitivity to supercooled droplets. A first analysis of the output of the algorithm run on the satellite data is compared with in situ data during an airborne Arctic field campaign, giving a mean percent error of 49 % for liquid water content and 75 % for ice water content.
Gerald G. Mace
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3679–3695, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3679-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3679-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The number of cloud droplets per unit volume, Nd, in a cloud is important for understanding aerosol–cloud interaction. In this study, we develop techniques to derive cloud droplet number concentration from lidar measurements combined with other remote sensing measurements such as cloud radar and microwave radiometers. We show that deriving Nd is very uncertain, although a synergistic algorithm seems to produce useful characterizations of Nd and effective particle size.
Richard M. Schulte, Matthew D. Lebsock, John M. Haynes, and Yongxiang Hu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3583–3596, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3583-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3583-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This paper describes a method to improve the detection of liquid clouds that are easily missed by the CloudSat satellite radar. To address this, we use machine learning techniques to estimate cloud properties (optical depth and droplet size) based on other satellite measurements. The results are compared with data from the MODIS instrument on the Aqua satellite, showing good correlations.
Jinyi Xia and Li Guan
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-977, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-977, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This study presents a method for estimating cloud cover from FY4A AGRI observations using LSTM neural networks. The results demonstrate excellent performance in distinguishing clear sky scenes and reducing errors in cloud cover estimation. It shows significant improvements compared to existing methods.
Sunny Sun-Mack, Patrick Minnis, Yan Chen, Gang Hong, and William L. Smith Jr.
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3323–3346, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3323-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3323-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Multilayer clouds (MCs) affect the radiation budget differently than single-layer clouds (SCs) and need to be identified in satellite images. A neural network was trained to identify MCs by matching imagery with lidar/radar data. This method correctly identifies ~87 % SCs and MCs with a net accuracy gain of 7.5 % over snow-free surfaces. It is more accurate than most available methods and constitutes a first step in providing a reasonable 3-D characterization of the cloudy atmosphere.
Gianluca Di Natale, Marco Ridolfi, and Luca Palchetti
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3171–3186, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3171-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3171-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This work aims to define a new approach to retrieve the distribution of the main ice crystal shapes occurring inside ice and cirrus clouds from infrared spectral measurements. The capability of retrieving these shapes of the ice crystals from satellites will allow us to extend the currently available climatologies to be used as physical constraints in general circulation models. This could could allow us to improve their accuracy and prediction performance.
Vincent Forcadell, Clotilde Augros, Olivier Caumont, Kévin Dedieu, Maxandre Ouradou, Cloe David, Jordi Figueras i Ventura, Olivier Laurantin, and Hassan Al-Sakka
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1336, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1336, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This study demonstrates the potential for enhancing severe hail detection through the application of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to dual-polarization radar data. It is shown that current methods can be calibrated to significantly enhance their performance for severe hail detection. This study establishes the foundation for the solution of a more complex problem: the estimation of the maximum size of hailstones on the ground using deep learning applied to radar data.
Valery Shcherbakov, Frédéric Szczap, Guillaume Mioche, and Céline Cornet
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3011–3028, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3011-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3011-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We performed Monte Carlo simulations of single-wavelength lidar signals from multi-layered clouds with special attention focused on the multiple-scattering (MS) effect in regions of the cloud-free molecular atmosphere. The MS effect on lidar signals always decreases with the increasing distance from the cloud far edge. The decrease is the direct consequence of the fact that the forward peak of particle phase functions is much larger than the receiver field of view.
He Huang, Quan Wang, Chao Liu, and Chen Zhou
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-87, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-87, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
Short summary
Short summary
This study introduces a cloud property retrieval method which integrates traditional radiative transfer simulations with a machine-learning method. Retrievals from a machine learning algorithm are used to provide initial guesses, and a radiative transfer model is used to create radiance lookup tables for later iteration processes. The new method combines the advantages of traditional and machine learning algorithms, and is applicable both daytime and nighttime conditions.
Claudia Emde, Veronika Pörtge, Mihail Manev, and Bernhard Mayer
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1180, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1180, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We introduce an innovative method to retrieve cloud fraction and optical thickness based on polarimetry, well-suited for satellite observations providing multi-angle polarization measurements. The cloud fraction and the cloud optical thickness can be derived from measurements at two viewing angles: one within the cloudbow and a second in the sun-glint region or at a scattering angle of approximately 90°.
Victor J. H. Trees, Ping Wang, Piet Stammes, Lieuwe G. Tilstra, David P. Donovan, and A. Pier Siebesma
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-40, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-40, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
Short summary
Short summary
Our study investigates the impact of cloud shadows on satellite-based aerosol index measurements over Europe by TROPOMI. Using a cloud shadow detection algorithm and simulations, we found that the overall effect on the aerosol index is minimal. Interestingly, we measured that cloud shadows are significantly bluer than their shadow-free surroundings, but the traditional algorithm already (partly) automatically corrects for this increased blueness.
Fani Alexandri, Felix Müller, Goutam Choudhury, Peggy Achtert, Torsten Seelig, and Matthias Tesche
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1739–1757, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1739-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1739-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We present a novel method for studying aerosol–cloud interactions. It combines cloud-relevant aerosol concentrations from polar-orbiting lidar observations with the development of individual clouds from geostationary observations. Application to 1 year of data gives first results on the impact of aerosols on the concentration and size of cloud droplets and on cloud phase in the regime of heterogeneous ice formation. The method could enable the systematic investigation of warm and cold clouds.
Kélian Sommer, Wassim Kabalan, and Romain Brunet
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-101, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-101, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Our research introduces a novel deep-learning approach for classifying and segmenting ground-based infrared thermal images, a crucial step in cloud monitoring. Tests on self-captured data showcase its excellent accuracy in distinguishing image types and in structure segmentation. With potential applications in astronomical observations, our work pioneers a robust solution for ground-based sky quality assessment, promising advancements in the photometric observations experiments.
Cristina Gil-Díaz, Michäel Sicard, Adolfo Comerón, Daniel Camilo Fortunato dos Santos Oliveira, Constantino Muñoz-Porcar, Alejandro Rodríguez-Gómez, Jasper R. Lewis, Ellsworth J. Welton, and Simone Lolli
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1197–1216, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1197-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1197-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
In this paper, a statistical study of cirrus geometrical and optical properties based on 4 years of continuous ground-based lidar measurements with the Barcelona (Spain) Micro Pulse Lidar (MPL) is analysed. The cloud optical depth, effective column lidar ratio and linear cloud depolarisation ratio have been calculated by a new approach to the two-way transmittance method, which is valid for both ground-based and spaceborne lidar systems. Their associated errors are also provided.
Audrey Teisseire, Patric Seifert, Alexander Myagkov, Johannes Bühl, and Martin Radenz
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 999–1016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-999-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-999-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The vertical distribution of particle shape (VDPS) method, introduced in this study, aids in characterizing the density-weighted shape of cloud particles from scanning slanted linear depolarization ratio (SLDR)-mode cloud radar observations. The VDPS approach represents a new, versatile way to study microphysical processes by combining a spheroidal scattering model with real measurements of SLDR.
Sarah Brüning, Stefan Niebler, and Holger Tost
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 961–978, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-961-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-961-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We apply the Res-UNet to derive a comprehensive 3D cloud tomography from 2D satellite data over heterogeneous landscapes. We combine observational data from passive and active remote sensing sensors by an automated matching algorithm. These data are fed into a neural network to predict cloud reflectivities on the whole satellite domain between 2.4 and 24 km height. With an average RMSE of 2.99 dBZ, we contribute to closing data gaps in the representation of clouds in observational data.
Michael Eisinger, Fabien Marnas, Kotska Wallace, Takuji Kubota, Nobuhiro Tomiyama, Yuichi Ohno, Toshiyuki Tanaka, Eichi Tomita, Tobias Wehr, and Dirk Bernaerts
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 839–862, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-839-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-839-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) is an ESA–JAXA satellite mission to be launched in 2024. We presented an overview of the EarthCARE processors' development, with processors developed by teams in Europe, Japan, and Canada. EarthCARE will allow scientists to evaluate the representation of cloud, aerosol, precipitation, and radiative flux in weather forecast and climate models, with the objective to better understand cloud processes and improve weather and climate models.
Sean R. Foley, Kirk D. Knobelspiesse, Andrew M. Sayer, Meng Gao, James Hays, and Judy Hoffman
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2392, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2392, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Measuring the shape of clouds helps scientists understand how the Earth will continue to respond to climate change. Satellites measure clouds in different ways. One way is to take pictures of clouds from multiple angles, and to use the differences between the pictures to measure cloud structure. However, doing this accurately can be challenging. We propose a way to use machine learning to recover the shape of clouds from multi-angle satellite data.
Anja Hünerbein, Sebastian Bley, Hartwig Deneke, Jan Fokke Meirink, Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff, and Andi Walther
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 261–276, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-261-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-261-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The ESA cloud, aerosol and radiation mission EarthCARE will provide active profiling and passive imaging measurements from a single satellite platform. The passive multi-spectral imager (MSI) will add information in the across-track direction. We present the cloud optical and physical properties algorithm, which combines the visible to infrared MSI channels to determine the cloud top pressure, optical thickness, particle size and water path.
Moritz Haarig, Anja Hünerbein, Ulla Wandinger, Nicole Docter, Sebastian Bley, David Donovan, and Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5953–5975, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5953-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5953-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The atmospheric lidar (ATLID) and Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) will be carried by the EarthCARE satellite. The synergistic ATLID–MSI Column Products (AM-COL) algorithm described in the paper combines the strengths of ATLID in vertically resolved profiles of aerosol and clouds (e.g., cloud top height) with the strengths of MSI in observing the complete scene beside the satellite track and in extending the lidar information to the swath. The algorithm is validated against simulated test scenes.
Patrick Chazette and Jean-Christophe Raut
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5847–5861, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5847-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5847-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The vertical profiles of the effective radii of ice crystals and ice water content in Arctic semi-transparent stratiform clouds were assessed using quantitative ground-based lidar measurements. The field campaign was part of the Pollution in the ARCtic System (PARCS) project which took place from 13 to 26 May 2016 in Hammerfest (70° 39′ 48″ N, 23° 41′ 00″ E). We show that under certain cloud conditions, lidar measurement combined with a dedicated algorithmic approach is an efficient tool.
Damao Zhang, Andrew M. Vogelmann, Fan Yang, Edward Luke, Pavlos Kollias, Zhien Wang, Peng Wu, William I. Gustafson Jr., Fan Mei, Susanne Glienke, Jason Tomlinson, and Neel Desai
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5827–5846, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5827-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5827-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Cloud droplet number concentration can be retrieved from remote sensing measurements. Aircraft measurements are used to validate four ground-based retrievals of cloud droplet number concentration. We demonstrate that retrieved cloud droplet number concentrations align well with aircraft measurements for overcast clouds, but they may substantially differ for broken clouds. The ensemble of various retrievals can help quantify retrieval uncertainties and identify reliable retrieval scenarios.
Eric M. Wilcox, Tianle Yuan, and Hua Song
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5387–5401, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5387-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5387-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
A new database is constructed from over 20 years of satellite records that comprises millions of deep convective clouds and spans the global tropics and subtropics. The database is a collection of clouds ranging from isolated cells to giant cloud systems. The cloud database provides a means of empirically studying the factors that determine the spatial structure and coverage of convective cloud systems, which are strongly related to the overall radiative forcing by cloud systems.
Florian Baur, Leonhard Scheck, Christina Stumpf, Christina Köpken-Watts, and Roland Potthast
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5305–5326, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5305-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5305-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Near-infrared satellite images have information on clouds that is complementary to what is available from the visible and infrared parts of the spectrum. Using this information for data assimilation and model evaluation requires a fast, accurate forward operator to compute synthetic images from numerical weather prediction model output. We discuss a novel, neural-network-based approach for the 1.6 µm near-infrared channel that is suitable for this purpose and also works for other solar channels.
Zhipeng Qu, David P. Donovan, Howard W. Barker, Jason N. S. Cole, Mark W. Shephard, and Vincent Huijnen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4927–4946, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4927-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4927-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The EarthCARE satellite mission Level 2 algorithm development requires realistic 3D cloud and aerosol scenes along the satellite orbits. One of the best ways to produce these scenes is to use a high-resolution numerical weather prediction model to simulate atmospheric conditions at 250 m horizontal resolution. This paper describes the production and validation of three EarthCARE test scenes.
Adrien Guyot, Jordan P. Brook, Alain Protat, Kathryn Turner, Joshua Soderholm, Nicholas F. McCarthy, and Hamish McGowan
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4571–4588, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4571-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4571-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We propose a new method that should facilitate the use of weather radars to study wildfires. It is important to be able to identify the particles emitted by wildfires on radar, but it is difficult because there are many other echoes on radar like clear air, the ground, sea clutter, and precipitation. We came up with a two-step process to classify these echoes. Our method is accurate and can be used by fire departments in emergencies or by scientists for research.
Hadrien Verbois, Yves-Marie Saint-Drenan, Vadim Becquet, Benoit Gschwind, and Philippe Blanc
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4165–4181, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4165-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4165-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Solar surface irradiance (SSI) estimations inferred from satellite images are essential to gain a comprehensive understanding of the solar resource, which is crucial in many fields. This study examines the recent data-driven methods for inferring SSI from satellite images and explores their strengths and weaknesses. The results suggest that while these methods show great promise, they sometimes dramatically underperform and should probably be used in conjunction with physical approaches.
Jesse Loveridge, Aviad Levis, Larry Di Girolamo, Vadim Holodovsky, Linda Forster, Anthony B. Davis, and Yoav Y. Schechner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3931–3957, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3931-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3931-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We test a new method for measuring the 3D spatial variations of water within clouds, using measurements of reflections of the Sun's light observed at multiple angles by satellites. This is a great improvement on older methods, which typically assume that clouds occur in a slab shape. Our study used computer modeling to show that our 3D method will work well in cumulus clouds, where older slab methods do not. Our method will inform us about these clouds and their role in our climate.
Zeen Zhu, Pavlos Kollias, and Fan Yang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3727–3737, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3727-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3727-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We show that large rain droplets, with large inertia, are unable to follow the rapid change of velocity field in a turbulent environment. A lack of consideration for this inertial effect leads to an artificial broadening of the Doppler spectrum from the conventional simulator. Based on the physics-based simulation, we propose a new approach to generate the radar Doppler spectra. This simulator provides a valuable tool to decode cloud microphysical and dynamical properties from radar observation.
Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff, David P. Donovan, and Ping Wang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3631–3651, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3631-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3631-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation (EarthCARE) satellite mission features the UV lidar ATLID. The ATLID FeatureMask algorithm provides a high-resolution detection probability mask which is used to guide smoothing strategies within the ATLID profile retrieval algorithm, one step further in the EarthCARE level-2 processing chain, in which the microphysical retrievals and target classification are performed.
Shannon L. Mason, Robin J. Hogan, Alessio Bozzo, and Nicola L. Pounder
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3459–3486, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3459-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3459-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We present a method for accurately estimating the contents and properties of clouds, snow, rain, and aerosols through the atmosphere, using the combined measurements of the radar, lidar, and radiometer instruments aboard the upcoming EarthCARE satellite, and evaluate the performance of the retrieval, using test scenes simulated from a numerical forecast model. When EarthCARE is in operation, these quantities and their estimated uncertainties will be distributed in a data product called ACM-CAP.
Artem G. Feofilov, Hélène Chepfer, Vincent Noël, and Frederic Szczap
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3363–3390, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3363-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3363-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The response of clouds to human-induced climate warming remains the largest source of uncertainty in model predictions of climate. We consider cloud retrievals from spaceborne observations, the existing CALIOP lidar and future ATLID lidar; show how they compare for the same scenes; and discuss the advantage of adding a new lidar for detecting cloud changes in the long run. We show that ATLID's advanced technology should allow for better detecting thinner clouds during daytime than before.
Woosub Roh, Masaki Satoh, Tempei Hashino, Shuhei Matsugishi, Tomoe Nasuno, and Takuji Kubota
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3331–3344, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3331-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3331-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
JAXA EarthCARE synthetic data (JAXA L1 data) were compiled using the global storm-resolving model (GSRM) NICAM (Nonhydrostatic ICosahedral
Atmospheric Model) simulation with 3.5 km horizontal resolution and the Joint-Simulator. JAXA L1 data are intended to support the development of JAXA retrieval algorithms for the EarthCARE sensor before launch of the satellite. The expected orbit of EarthCARE and horizontal sampling of each sensor were used to simulate the signals.
Philipp Gregor, Tobias Zinner, Fabian Jakub, and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3257–3271, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3257-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3257-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
This work introduces MACIN, a model for short-term forecasting of direct irradiance for solar energy applications. MACIN exploits cloud images of multiple cameras to predict irradiance. The model is applied to artificial images of clouds from a weather model. The artificial cloud data allow for a more in-depth evaluation and attribution of errors compared with real data. Good performance of derived cloud information and significant forecast improvements over a baseline forecast were found.
Christian Matar, Céline Cornet, Frédéric Parol, Laurent C.-Labonnote, Frédérique Auriol, and Marc Nicolas
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3221–3243, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3221-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3221-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The optimal estimation formalism is applied to OSIRIS airborne high-resolution multi-angular measurements to retrieve COT and Reff. The corresponding uncertainties related to measurement errors, which are up to 6 and 12 %, the non-retrieved parameters, which are less than 0.5 %, and the cloud model assumptions show that the heterogeneous vertical profiles and the 3D radiative transfer effects lead to average uncertainties of 5 and 4 % for COT and 13 and 9 % for Reff.
Yuichiro Hagihara, Yuichi Ohno, Hiroaki Horie, Woosub Roh, Masaki Satoh, and Takuji Kubota
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3211–3219, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3211-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3211-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The CPR on the EarthCARE satellite is the first satellite-borne Doppler radar. We evaluated the effectiveness of horizontal integration and the unfolding method for the reduction of the Doppler error (the standard deviation of the random error) in the CPR_ECO product. The error was higher in the tropics than in the other latitudes due to frequent rain echo occurrence and limitation of its unfolding correction. If we use low-mode operation (high PRF), the errors become small enough.
Kamil Mroz, Bernat Puidgomènech Treserras, Alessandro Battaglia, Pavlos Kollias, Aleksandra Tatarevic, and Frederic Tridon
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2865–2888, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2865-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2865-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We present the theoretical basis of the algorithm that estimates the amount of water and size of particles in clouds and precipitation. The algorithm uses data collected by the Cloud Profiling Radar that was developed for the upcoming Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) satellite mission. After the satellite launch, the vertical distribution of cloud and precipitation properties will be delivered as the C-CLD product.
Cited articles
ARM Data Discovery Portal: https://adc.arm.gov/discovery/#/results/instrument_class_code::kazrarscl, last access: 15 February 2023. a
Acarreta, J. R., De Haan, F. J., and Stammes, P.: Cloud pressure retrieval using the O2-O2 absorption band at 477 nm, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D05204, https://doi.org/10.1029/2003JD003915, 2004. a
Alexandrov, M. D., Cairns, B., Emde, C., Ackerman, A. S., and van Diedenhoven, B.: Accuracy assessments of cloud droplet size retrievals from polarized reflectance measurements by the research scanning polarimeter, Remote Sens. Environ., 125, 92–111, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2012.07.012, 2012. a
Asano, S., Shiobara, M., and Uchiyama, A.: Estimation of Cloud Physical Parameters from Airborne Solar Spectral Reflectance Measurements for Stratocumulus Clouds, J. Atmos. Sci., 52, 3556–3576, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1995)052<3556:EOCPPF>2.0.CO;2, 1995. a
Baldridge, A. M., Hook, S. J., Grove, C. I., and Rivera, G.: The ASTER Spectral Library Version 2.0, Remote Sens. Environ., 113, 711–715, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2008.11.007, 2009. a
Baum, B. A., Yang, P., Heymsfield, A. J., Bansemer, A., Cole, B. H., Merrelli, A., Schmitt, C., and Wang, C.: Ice cloud single-scattering property models with the full phase matrix at wavelengths from 0.2 to 100 µm, J. Quant. Spectrosc. Ra., 146, 123–139, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2014.02.029, 2014. a
Bodhaine, B. A., Wood, N. B., Dutton, E. G., and Slusser, J. R.: On Rayleigh optical depth calculations, J. Atmos. Ocean Tech., 16, 1854–1861, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0426(1999)016<1854:ORODC>2.0.CO;2, 1999. a
Boers, R., Acarreta, J. R., and Gras, J. L.: Satellite monitoring of the first indirect aerosol effect: Retrieval of the droplet concentration of water clouds, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D22208, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JD006838, 2006. a
Bogumil, K., Orphal, J., Homann, T., Voigt, S., Spietz, P., Fleischmann, O., Vogel, A., Hartmann, M., Bovensmann, H., Frerick, J., and Burrows, J.: Measurements of molecular absorption spectra with the SCIAMACHY pre-flight
model: Instrument characterization and reference data for atmospheric remote
sensing in the 230–2380 nm region, J. Photoch. Photobio. A, 157, 167–184, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1010-6030(03)00062-5, 2003. a
Brenguier, J., Pawlowska, H., Schüller, L., Preusker, R., Fischer, J., and Fouquart, Y.: Radiative Properties of Boundary Layer Clouds: Droplet Effective Radius versus Number Concentration, J. Atmos. Sci., 57, 803–821, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(2000)057<0803:RPOBLC>2.0.CO;2, 2000. a, b
Bucsela, E. J., Celarier, E. A., Wenig, M. O., Gleason, J. F., Veefkind, J. P., Boersma, K. F., and Brinksma, E. J.: Algorithm for NO2 vertical column retrieval from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 44, 1245–1258, https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2005.863715, 2006. a
Buras, R., Dowling, T., and Emde, C.: New secondary-scattering correction in DISORT with increased efficiency for forward scattering, J. Quant. Spectrosc. Ra., 112, 2028–2034, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2011.03.019, 2011. a, b
Burrows, J. P., Hölze, E., Goede, A. P. H., Visser, H., and Fricke, W.: SCIAMACHY—scanning imaging absorption spectrometer for atmospheric chartography, Acta Astronaut., 35, 445–451, https://doi.org/10.1016/0094-5765(94)00278-T, 1995. a
Carbajal Henken, C., Lindstrot, R., Filiptisch, F., Walther, A., Preusker, R., and Fischer, J.: FAME-C: Retrieval of cloud top pressure with vertically inhomogeneous cloud profiles, AIP Conf. Proc., 1531, 412, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4804794, 2013. a
Chapman, R. M.: Cloud distributions and altitude profiles from a satellite, Planet. Space Sci., 9, 70–71, https://doi.org/10.1016/0032-0633(62)90074-0, 1962. a
Clough, S. A., Kneizys, F. X., and Davies, W.: Line shape and the water vapor continuum, Atmos. Res., 23, 229–241, https://doi.org/10.1016/0169-8095(89)90020-3, 1989. a
Coddington, O. M., Vukicevic, T., Schmidt, K. S., and Platnick, S.: Characterizing the information content of cloud thermodynamic phase retrievals from the notional PACE OCI shortwave reflectance measurements, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 122, 8079–8100, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JD026493, 2017. a, b, c, d
Coddington, O. M., Richard, E. C., Harber, D., Pilewskie, P., Woods, T. N., Chance, K., Liu, X., and Sun, K.: The TSIS-1 Hybrid Solar Reference Spectrum, Geophys. Res. Lett., 48, e2020GL091709, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL091709, 2021. a
Compernolle, S., Argyrouli, A., Lutz, R., Sneep, M., Lambert, J.-C., Fjæraa, A. M., Hubert, D., Keppens, A., Loyola, D., O'Connor, E., Romahn, F., Stammes, P., Verhoelst, T., and Wang, P.: Validation of the Sentinel-5 Precursor TROPOMI cloud data with Cloudnet, Aura OMI O2–O2, MODIS, and Suomi-NPP VIIRS, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2451–2476, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2451-2021, 2021. a
Curran, R. J., Kyle, H. L., Blaine, L. R., Smith, J., and Clem, T. D.: Multichannel scanning radiometer for remote sensing cloud physical parameters, Rev. Sci. Instrum., 52, 1546–1555, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1136466, 1981. a
Davis, A. B., Yang, Y., and Marshak, A.: EPIC/DSCOVR as a Pathfinder in Cloud Remote Sensing using Differential Oxygen Absorption Spectroscopy, Frontiers in Remote Sensing, 3, 796273, https://doi.org/10.3389/frsen.2022.796273, 2022. a, b, c, d
Desmons, M., Ferlay, N., Parol, F., J., R., and Thieuleux, F.: A Global Multilayer Cloud Identification with POLDER/PARASOL, J. Appl. Meteorol. Clim., 56, 1121–1139, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-16-0159.1, 2017. a
Desmons, M., Wang, P., Stammes, P., and Tilstra, L. G.: FRESCO-B: a fast cloud retrieval algorithm using oxygen B-band measurements from GOME-2, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 2485–2498, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-2485-2019, 2019. a
Donlon, C., Berruti, B., Buongiorno, A., Ferreira, M.-H., Féménias, P., Frerick, J., Goryl, P., Klein, U., Laur, H., Mavrocordatos, C., Nieke, J., Rebhan, H., Seitz, B., Stroede, J., and Sciarra, R.: The Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) Sentinel-3 mission, Remote Sens. Environ., 120, 37–57, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2011.07.024, 2012. a
Dubin, M., Hull, A. R., and Chapman, K. S. W.: U.S. Standard Atmosphere,
1976, Tech. rep., NOAA-S/T-76-1562, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19770009539 (last access: 10 February 2023), 1976. a
Emde, C., Buras-Schnell, R., Kylling, A., Mayer, B., Gasteiger, J., Hamann, U., Kylling, J., Richter, B., Pause, C., Dowling, T., and Bugliaro, L.: The libRadtran software package for radiative transfer calculations (version 2.0.1), Geosci. Model Dev., 9, 1647–1672, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-1647-2016, 2016 (code available at: http://www.libradtran.org/doku.php, last access: 10 February 2023). a, b, c
ESA: Spectral Characterisation Data, ESA [data set], https://sentinels.copernicus.eu/web/sentinel/technical-guides/sentinel-3-olci/olci-instrument/spectral-characterisation-data, last access: 15 February 2023. a
Feofilov, A. G., Stubenrauch, C. J., and Delanoë, J.: Ice water content vertical profiles of high-level clouds: classification and impact on radiative fluxes, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 12327–12344, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-12327-2015, 2015. a, b
Ferlay, N., Thieuleux, F., Cornet, C., David, A. B., Dubuisson, P., Ducos, F., Parol, F., Riédi, J., and Vanbauce, C.: Toward New Inferences about Cloud Structures from Multidirectional Measurements in the Oxygen A Band: Middle-of-Cloud Pressure and Cloud Geometrical Thickness from POLDER-3/PARASOL, J. Appl. Meteorol. Clim., 49, 2492–2507,
https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JAMC2550.1, 2010. a
Fischer, J. and Grassl, B.: Detection of Cloud-Top Height from Backscattered Radiances within the Oxygen A Band. Part 1: Theoretical Study, J. Appl. Meteorol. Clim., 30, 1245–1259, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(1991)030<1245:DOCTHF>2.0.CO;2, 1991. a
Fischer, J. and Preusker, R.: Study on cloud top pressure development from
Sentinel-3 OLCI OCTPO2, Tech. rep., EUMETSAT Algorithm Product Validation and Evolution Report, Issue 2.0, 20.06.2021, EUM/CO/19/4600002221/AIBo, https://www-cdn.eumetsat.int/files/2021-09/OCTPO2_PVR_v2-1.pdf (last access: 10 February 2023), 2021. a, b, c, d
Fischer, J., Cordes, W., Schmitz-Peiffer, A., Renger, W., and Mörl, P.: Detection of Cloud-Top Height from Backscattered Radiances within the Oxygen A Band. Part 2: Measurements, J. Appl. Meteorol. Clim., 30, 1260–1267, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(1991)030<1260:DOCTHF>2.0.CO;2, 1991. a
Gasteiger, J., Emde, C., Mayer, B., Buras, R., Buehler, S. A., and Lemke, O.: Representative wavelengths absorption parameterization applied to satellite channels and spectral bands), J. Quant. Spectrosc. Ra., 148, 99–115, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2014.06.024, 2014. a, b
Gordon, I., Rothman, L., Hargreaves, R., Hashemi, R., Karlovets, E., Skinner, F., Conway, E., Hill, C., Kochanov, R., Tan, Y., Wcisło, P., Finenko, A., Nelson, K., Bernath, P., M. Birk, V. B., Campargue, A., Chance, K., Coustenis, A., B.J. Drouin, J. F., Gamache, R., Hodges, J., Jacquemart, D., Mlawer, E., Nikitin, A., Perevalov, V., Rotger, M., Tennyson, J., Toon, G., Tran, H., Tyuterev, V., Adkins, E., Baker, A., Barbe, A., Canè, E., Császár, A., Dudaryonok, A., Egorov, O., Fleisher, A., Fleurbaey, H., Foltynowicz, A., Furtenbacher, T., Harrison, J., Hartmann, J., Horneman, V., Huang, X., Karman, T., Karns, J., Kassi, S., Kleiner, I., Kofman, V., Kwabia–Tchana, F., Lavrentieva, N., Lee, T., Long, D., Lukashevskaya, A., Lyulin, O., Makhnev, V., Matt, W., Massie, S., Melosso, M., Mikhailenko, S., Mondelain, D., Müller, H., Naumenko, O., Perrin, A., Polyansky, O., Raddaoui, E., Raston, P., Reed, Z., Rey, M., Richard, C., Tóbiás, R., Sadiek, I., Schwenke, D., Starikova, E., Sung, K., Tamassia, F., Tashkun, S., Auwera, J. V., Vasilenko, I., Vigasin, A., Villanueva, G., Vispoel, B., Wagner, G., Yachmenev, A., and Yurchenko, S.: The HITRAN2020 molecular spectroscopic database, J. Quant. Spectrosc. Ra., 277, 107949, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2021.107949, 2022 (data available at: https://hitran.org, last access: 10 February 2023). a, b
Gorodetsky, A. K., Malkevich, M. S., and Syachinov, V. I.: Determination of cloud height based on radiation measurements made from the “Cosmos-320” artificial earth satellite, Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR, 200, 588–590, 1971. a
Hale, G. M. and Querry, M. R.: Optical Constants of Water in the 200-nm to 200-µm Wavelength Region, Appl. Optics, 12, 555–563, https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.12.000555, 1973. a
Hanel, R. A.: Determination of cloud altitude from a satellite, J. Geophys. Res., 66, 1300–1300, https://doi.org/10.1029/JZ066i004p01300, 1961. a
Harvey, B. and Zakutnaya, O.: Russian Space Probes: Scientific Discoveries and Future Missions, Springer, ISBN 978-1-4419-8150-9, 2011. a
Heidinger, A. K. and Pavolonis, M.J.: Gazing at Cirrus Clouds for 25 Years through a Split Window. Part I: Methodology, J. Appl. Meteorol. Clim., 48, 1100–1116, https://doi.org/10.1175/2008JAMC1882.1, 2009. a
Heidinger, A. K. and Stephens, G. L.: Molecular Line Absorption in a Scattering
Atmosphere. Part II: Application to Remote Sensing in the O2 A band, J.
Atmos. Sci., 57, 1615–1634, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(2000)057<1615:MLAIAS>2.0.CO;2, 2000. a
Joiner, J., Vasilkov, A. P., Gupta, P., Bhartia, P. K., Veefkind, P., Sneep, M., de Haan, J., Polonsky, I., and Spurr, R.: Fast simulators for satellite cloud optical centroid pressure retrievals; evaluation of OMI cloud retrievals, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 5, 529–545, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-5-529-2012, 2012. a
King, M. D., Platnick, S., Menzel, W. P., Ackerman, S. A., and Hubanks, P. A.: Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Clouds Observed by MODIS Onboard the Terra and Aqua Satellites, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 51, 3826–3852, https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2012.2227333, 2013. a, b
Koelemeijer, R. B. A., Stammes, P., Hovenier, J. W., and de Haan, J. F.: A fast method for retrieval of cloud parameters using Oxygen A band measurements from GOME, J. Geophys. Res., 106, 3475–3490, https://doi.org/10.1029/2000JD900657, 2001. a
Kokhanovsky, A. A. and Rozanov, V. V.: The physical parameterization of the top-of-atmosphere reflection function for a cloudy atmosphere—underlying surface system: the oxygen A-band case study, J. Quant. Spectrosc. Ra., 85, 35–55, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-4073(03)00193-6, 2004. a
Kollias, P., Clothiaux, E. E., Ackerman, T. P., Albrecht, B. A., Widener, K. B., Moran, K. P., Luke, E. P., Johnson, K. L., Bharadwaj, N., Mead, J. B., Miller, M. A., Verlinde, J., Marchand, R. T., and Mace, G. G.: Development and Applications of ARM Millimeter-Wavelength Cloud Radars, Meteor. Mon., 57, 17.1–17.19, https://doi.org/10.1175/AMSMONOGRAPHS-D-15-0037.1, 2016. a
Korolev, A., Isaac, G., Strapp, J., Cober, S., and Barker, H.: In situ measurements of liquid water content profiles in midlatitude stratiform clouds, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 133, 1693–1699, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.147, 2007. a
Krämer, M., Rolf, C., Spelten, N., Afchine, A., Fahey, D., Jensen, E., Khaykin, S., Kuhn, T., Lawson, P., Lykov, A., Pan, L. L., Riese, M., Rollins, A., Stroh, F., Thornberry, T., Wolf, V., Woods, S., Spichtinger, P., Quaas, J., and Sourdeval, O.: A microphysics guide to cirrus – Part 2: Climatologies of clouds and humidity from observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12569–12608, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12569-2020, 2020. a, b, c
Krijger, J. M., van Weele, M., Aben, I., and Frey, R.: Technical Note: The effect of sensor resolution on the number of cloud-free observations from space, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 7, 2881–2891, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-7-2881-2007, 2007. a
Kuze, A. and Chance, K. V.: Analysis of cloud top height and cloud coverage from satellites using the O2 A and B bands, J. Geophys. Res., 99, 14481–14491, https://doi.org/10.1029/94JD01152, 1994. a
Lelli, L. and Vountas, M.: Chapter 5 – Aerosol and Cloud Bottom Altitude Covariations From Multisensor Spaceborne Measurements, in: Remote Sensing of Aerosols, Clouds, and Precipitation, edited by: Islam, T., Hu, Y., Kokhanovsky, A., and Wang, J., Elsevier, 109–127, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-810437-8.00005-0, 2018. a
Lelli, L., Kokhanovsky, A. A., Rozanov, V. V., Vountas, M., Sayer, A. M., and Burrows, J. P.: Seven years of global retrieval of cloud properties using space-borne data of GOME, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 5, 1551–1570, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-5-1551-2012, 2012. a
Levenberg, K.: A method for the solution of certain non-linear problems in least-squares, Q. Appl. Math., 2, 164–168, https://doi.org/10.1090/qam/10666, 1944. a
Li, R., Guo, J., Fu, Y., Min, Q., Wang, Y., Gao, X., and Dong, X.: Estimating
the vertical profiles of cloud water content in warm rain clouds, J. Geophys.
Res.-Atmos., 120, 10250–10266, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JD023489, 2015. a
Lindstrot, R., Preusker, R., Ruhtz, T., Heese, B., Wiegner, M., Lindemann, C., and Fischer, J.: Validation of MERIS Cloud-Top Pressure Using Airborne Lidar Measurements, J. Appl. Meteorol. Clim., 45, 1612–1621, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAM2436.1, 2006. a
LISIRD: TSIS-1 Hybrid Solar Reference Spectrum (HSRS), LISIRD [data set], https://lasp.colorado.edu/lisird/data/tsis1_hsrs, last access: 15 February 2023. a
Loyola, D.: Automatic cloud analysis from polar-orbiting satellites using neural network and data fusion techniques, in: IGARSS 2004. 2004 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Anchorage, AK, USA, 20–24 September 2004, IEEE, 4, 2530–2533, https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS.2004.1369811, 2004. a
Marchant, B., Platnick, S., Meyer, K., and Wind, G.: Evaluation of the MODIS Collection 6 multilayer cloud detection algorithm through comparisons with CloudSat Cloud Profiling Radar and CALIPSO CALIOP products, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 3263–3275, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3263-2020, 2020. a
Marchuk, G. I., Sagdeev, R. Z., Armand, N. A., Jutuza, B. G., and Malkevich, M. S.: Methodological principles and the results of the Earth survey from “Cosmos” and “Intercosmos” satellites, Remote Sensing Reviews, 3, 105–135, https://doi.org/10.1080/02757258809532092, 1988. a
Marquardt, D. R.: An algorithm for the least-squares estimation of nonlinear parameters, J. Soc. Ind. Appl. Math., 11, 431–441, https://doi.org/10.1137/0111030, 1963. a
Martins, J. V., Fernandez-Borda, R., McBride, B., Remer, L., and Barbosa, H. M. J.: The HARP hyperangular imaging polarimeter and the need for small satellite payloads with high science payoff for earth science remote sensing, in: IGARSS 2018 – 2018 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Valencia, Spain, 22–27 July 2018, IEEE, 6304–6307, https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS.2018.8518823, 2018. a, b
McClatchey, R. A., Benedict, W. S., Clough, S. A., Burch, D. E., Calfee, R. F., Fox, K., Rothman, L. S., and Garing, J. S.: AFCRL Atmospheric Absorption Line Parameters Compilation, Tech. rep., AFCRL-TR-73-0096, Environmental Research Papers, No. 434, Optical Physics Laboratory, Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, https://hitran.org/media/refs/HITRAN-1973.pdf (last access: 10 February 2023), 1973. a
Meerdink, S. K., Hook, S. J., Roberts, D. A., and Abbott, E. A.: The ECOSTRESS spectral library version 1.0, Remote Sens. Environ., 230, 1–8, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2019.05.015, 2019. a, b
Menzel, W. P., Frey, R. A., Zhang, H., Wylie, D. P., Moeller, C. C., Holz, R. E., Maddux, B., Baum, B. A., Strabala, K. I., and Gumley, L. E.: MODIS Global Cloud-Top Pressure and Amount Estimation: Algorithm Description and
Results, J. Appl. Meteorol. Clim., 47, 1175–1198, https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JAMC1705.1, 2008. a
Mlawer, E., Payne, V. H., Moncet, J.-L., Delamere, J. S., Alvarado, M. J., and Tobin, D.: Development and recent evaluation of the MT_CKD model of continuum absorption, Philos. T. Roy. Soc. A, 360, 1–37,
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2011.0295, 2012 (code available at: https://github.com/AER-RC/MT_CKD, last access: 10 February 2023). a, b
Moroney, C., Davies, R., and Muller, J.-P.: Operational retrieval of cloud-top heights using MISR data, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 40, 1532–1540, https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2002.801150, 2012. a
NASA OceanColor Web, https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov, last access: 15 February 2023. a
NASA: PACE Prelaunch Characterization, NASA OceanColor Web,
https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/pace/characterization, last access: 15 February 2023. a
Naud, C. M., Baum, B. A., Pavolonis, M., Heidinger, A., Frey, R., and Zhang, H.: Comparison of MISR and MODIS cloud-top heights in the presence of cloud overlap, Remote Sens. Environ., 107, 200–210, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2006.09.030, 2007. a
Neneman, M., Wagner, S., Bourg, L., Blanot, L., Bouvet, M., Adriaensen, S., and Nieke, J.: Use of Moon Observations for Characterization of Sentinel-3B Ocean and Land Color Instrument, Remote Sens., 12, 2543, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12162543, 2020. a, b
O'Brien, D. M. and Mitchell, R. M.: Error Estimates for Retrieval of Cloud-Top Pressure Using Absorption in the A Band of Oxygen, J. Appl. Meteorol. Clim., 31, 1179–1182, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(1992)031<1179:EEFROC>2.0.CO;2, 1992. a
Platnick, S.: Vertical photon transport in cloud remote sensing problems, J. Geophys. Res., 105, 22919–22935, https://doi.org/10.1029/2000JD900333, 2000. a
Platnick, S., King, M., Ackerman, S., Menzel, W., Baum, B., Riedi, J., and Frey, R.: The MODIS cloud products: algorithms and examples from Terra, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 41, 459–473, https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2002.808301, 2003. a, b, c
Platnick, S., Meyer, K.G., King, M.D., Wind, G., Amarasinghe, N., Marchant, B., Arnold, G. T., Zhang, Z., Hubanks, P.A., Holz, R.E., Yang, P., Ridgway, W. L., and Riedi, J.: The MODIS Cloud Optical and Microphysical Products: Collection 6 Updates and Examples From Terra and Aqua, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 55, 502–525, https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2016.2610522, 2017. a, b
Platnick, S., Meyer, K., Wind, G., Holz, R. E., Amarasinghe, N., Hubanks, P. A., Marchant, B., Dutcher, S., and Veglio, P.: The NASA MODIS-VIIRS Continuity Cloud Optical Properties Products, Remote Sensing, 13, 2, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13010002, 2021. a, b, c
Popp, C., Wang, P., Brunner, D., Stammes, P., Zhou, Y., and Grzegorski, M.: MERIS albedo climatology for FRESCO+ O2 A-band cloud retrieval, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 4, 463–483, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-4-463-2011, 2011. a
Poulsen, C. A., Siddans, R., Thomas, G. E., Sayer, A. M., Grainger, R. G., Campmany, E., Dean, S. M., Arnold, C., and Watts, P. D.: Cloud retrievals from satellite data using optimal estimation: evaluation and application to ATSR, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 5, 1889–1910, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-5-1889-2012, 2012. a, b
Povey, A. C. and Grainger, R. G.: Known and unknown unknowns: uncertainty estimation in satellite remote sensing, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 4699–4718, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4699-2015, 2015. a, b, c
Preusker, R. and Fischer, J.: Study on cloud top pressure development from Sentinel-3 OLCI OCTPO2, Tech. rep., EUMETSAT Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document Issue 2.2, 16.09.2021, EUM/CO/19/4600002221/AIBo, https://www-cdn.eumetsat.int/files/2021-09/OCTPO2_ATBD_CTP_v2-2.pdf (last access: 10 February 2023),
2021. a, b
Rast, M., Bezy, J. L., and Bruzzi, S.: The ESA Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer MERIS a review of the instrument and its mission, Int. J. Remote Sens., 20, 1681–1702, https://doi.org/0.1080/014311699212416, 1999. a
Remer, L. A., Mattoo, S., Levy, R. C., Heidinger, A., Pierce, R. B., and Chin, M.: Retrieving aerosol in a cloudy environment: aerosol product availability as a function of spatial resolution, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 5, 1823–1840, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-5-1823-2012, 2012. a
Richardson, M., Leinonen, J., Cronk, H. Q., McDuffie, J., Lebsock, M. D., and Stephens, G. L.: Marine liquid cloud geometric thickness retrieved from OCO-2's oxygen A-band spectrometer, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 1717–1737, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1717-2019, 2019. a, b
Rodgers, C. D.: Inverse Methods for Atmospheric Sounding Theory and Practice, World Scientific, Singapore, London, New Jersey, Hong Kong, https://doi.org/10.1142/3171, 2000. a, b, c
Rozanov, V. V. and Kokhanovsky, A. A.: Semianalytical cloud retrieval algorithm as applied to the cloud top altitude and the cloud geometrical thickness determination from top-of-atmosphere reflectance measurements in the oxygen A band, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D05202, https://doi.org/10.1029/2003JD004104, 2004. a, b
Saiedy, F., Hilleary, D. T., and Morgan, W. A.: Cloud-Top Altitude Measurements from Satellites, Appl. Optics, 4, 495–500, https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.4.000495, 1965. a, b
Saiedy, F., Jacobowitz, H., and Wark, D. Q.: On Cloud-Top Determination from Gemini-5, J. Atmos. Sci., 24, 63–69, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1967)024<0063:OCTDFG>2.0.CO;2, 1967. a
Sanders, A. F. J., de Haan, J. F., Sneep, M., Apituley, A., Stammes, P., Vieitez, M. O., Tilstra, L. G., Tuinder, O. N. E., Koning, C. E., and Veefkind, J. P.: Evaluation of the operational Aerosol Layer Height retrieval algorithm for Sentinel-5 Precursor: application to O2 A band observations from GOME-2A, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 4947–4977, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4947-2015, 2015. a
Sayer, A. M., Poulsen, C. A., Arnold, C., Campmany, E., Dean, S., Ewen, G. B. L., Grainger, R. G., Lawrence, B. N., Siddans, R., Thomas, G. E., and Watts, P. D.: Global retrieval of ATSR cloud parameters and evaluation (GRAPE): dataset assessment, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 3913–3936, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-3913-2011, 2011. a
Sayer, A. M., Govaerts, Y., Kolmonen, P., Lipponen, A., Luffarelli, M., Mielonen, T., Patadia, F., Popp, T., Povey, A. C., Stebel, K., and Witek, M. L.: A review and framework for the evaluation of pixel-level uncertainty estimates in satellite aerosol remote sensing, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 373–404, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-373-2020, 2020. a, b, c
Shettle, E.: Models of aerosols, clouds and precipitation for atmospheric propagation studies, in: Electromagnetic wave propagation panel specialists' meeting, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, 9 October 1989, ISSN 0549-7191, 1989. a
Sneep, M., de Haan, J. F., Stammes, P., Wang, P., Vanbauce, C., Joiner, J., Vasilkov, A. P., and Levelt, P. F.: Three-way comparison between OMI and PARASOL cloud pressure products, J. Geophys. Res., 113, D15S23, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JD008694, 2008. a
Sogacheva, L., Popp, T., Sayer, A. M., Dubovik, O., Garay, M. J., Heckel, A., Hsu, N. C., Jethva, H., Kahn, R. A., Kolmonen, P., Kosmale, M., de Leeuw, G., Levy, R. C., Litvinov, P., Lyapustin, A., North, P., Torres, O., and Arola, A.: Merging regional and global aerosol optical depth records from major available satellite products, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 2031–2056, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2031-2020, 2020. a, b
Stephens, G. L. and Heidinger, A.: Molecular Line Absorption in a Scattering Atmosphere. Part I: Theory, J. Atmos. Sci., 57, 1599–1614, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(2000)057<1599:MLAIAS>2.0.CO;2, 2000. a
Subrahmanyam, K. V. and Kumar, K. K.: CloudSat observations of multi layered clouds across the globe, Clim. Dynam., 49, 327–341, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-016-3345-7, 2017. a
Thorsen, T. J., Fu, Q., and Comstock, J.: Comparison of the CALIPSO satellite and ground-based observations of cirrus clouds at the ARM TWP sites, J. Geophys. Res., 116, D21203, https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JD015970, 2011. a
van Amerongen, A., Rietjens, J., Campo, J., Dogan, E., Dingjan, J., Nalla, R., Caron, J., and Hasekamp, O.: SPEXone: a compact multi-angle polarimeter, in: Proc. SPIE 11180, International Conference on Space Optics — ICSO 2018,
111800L, https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2535940, 2019. a, b
Vanbauce, C., Buriez, J. C., Parol, F., Bonnel, B., Sèze, G., and Couvert, P.: Apparent pressure derived from ADEOS-POLDER observations in the oxygen A-band over ocean, Geophys. Res. Lett., 25, 3159–3162, https://doi.org/10.1029/98GL02324, 1998. a
van Diedenhoven, B., Hasekamp, O. P., and Aben, I.: Surface pressure retrieval from SCIAMACHY measurements in the O2 A Band: validation of the measurements and sensitivity on aerosols, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 5, 2109–2120, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-5-2109-2005, 2005. a
van Diedenhoven, B., Ackerman, A. S., Cairns, B., and Fridlind, A. M.: A flexible parameterization for shortwave optical properties of ice crystals, J. Atmos. Sci., 71, 1763–1782, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-13-0205.1, 2014. a
van Diedenhoven, B., Fridlind, A. M., Cairns, B., Ackerman, A. S., and Yorks, J. E.: Vertical variation of ice particle size in convective cloud tops, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, 4586–4593, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL068548, 2016. a, b
Vukicevic, T., Coddington, O., and Pilewskie, P.: Characterizing the retrieval of cloud properties from optical remote sensing, J. Geophys. Res., 115, D20211, https://doi.org/10.1029/2009JD012830, 2010. a
Wang, P., Stammes, P., van der A, R., Pinardi, G., and van Roozendael, M.: FRESCO+: an improved O2 A-band cloud retrieval algorithm for tropospheric trace gas retrievals, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 6565–6576, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-8-6565-2008, 2008. a
Wark, D. Q. and Mercer, D. M.: Absorption in the Atmosphere by the Oxygen “A” Band, Appl. Optics, 4, 839–845, https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.4.000839, 1965. a
Werdell, P. J., Behrenfeld, M. J., Bontempi, P. S., Boss, E., Cairns, B., Davis, G. T., Franz, B. A., Gliese, U. B., Gorman, E. T., Hasekamp, O., Knobelspiesse, K. D., Mannino, A., Martins, J. V., McClain, C. R., Meister, G., and Remer, L. A.: The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem Mission: Status, Science, Advances, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 100, 1775–1794, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0056.1, 2019. a, b, c
Western, L. M., Rougier, J. C., Watson, I. M., and Francis, P. N.: Evaluating nonlinear maximum likelihood optimal estimation uncertainty in cloud and aerosol remote sensing, Atmos. Sci. Lett., 21, e980, https://doi.org/10.1002/asl.980, 2020. a
Witek, M. L., Garay, M. J., Diner, D. J., Bull, M. A., and Seidel, F. C.: New approach to the retrieval of AOD and its uncertainty from MISR observations over dark water, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 429–439, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-429-2018, 2018.
a
Wood, R.: Drizzle in Stratiform Boundary Layer Clouds. Part I: Vertical and Horizontal Structure, J. Atmos. Sci., 62, 3011–3033, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS3529.1, 2005. a
Wu, M.-L. C.: Remote Sensing of Cloud-Top Pressure Using Reflected Solar Radiation in the Oxygen A-Band, J. Appl. Meteorol. Clim., 24, 539–546, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(1985)024<0539:RSOCTP>2.0.CO;2, 1985. a
Xu, X., Wang, J., Wang, Y., Zeng, J., Torres, O., Reid, J. S., Miller, S. D., Martins, J. V., and Remer, L. A.: Detecting layer height of smoke aerosols over vegetated land and water surfaces via oxygen absorption bands: hourly results from EPIC/DSCOVR in deep space, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 3269–3288, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3269-2019, 2019. a
Yamamoto, G. and Wark, D. Q.: Discussion of the letter by R. A. Hanel,
“Determination of cloud altitude from a satellite”, J. Geophys. Res., 66,
3596–3956, https://doi.org/10.1029/JZ066i010p03596, 1961. a
Yang, P., Bi, L., Baum, B. A., Liou, K.-N., Kattawar, G., and Mishchenko, M.:
Spectrally consistent scattering, absorption, and polarization properties of
atmospheric ice crystals at wavelengths from 0.2 µm to 100 µm, J. Atmos. Sci., 70, 330–347, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-12-039.1, 2013a. a, b, c, d, e
Yang, Y., Marshak, A., Mao, J., Lyapustin, A., and Herman, J.: A method of retrieving cloud top height and cloud geometrical thickness with oxygen A and B bands for the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) mission: Radiative transfer simulations, J. Quant. Spectrosc. Ra., 122, 141–149,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2012.09.017, 2013b. a, b
Zhai, P.-W. and Hu, Y.: An improved pseudo spherical shell algorithm for vector radiative transfer, J. Quant. Spectrosc. Ra., 282, 108132, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2022.108132, 2022. a
Zhang, Y. and Klein, S. A.: Factors Controlling the Vertical Extent of Fair-Weather Shallow Cumulus Clouds over Land: Investigation of Diurnal-Cycle Observations Collected at the ARM Southern Great Plains Site, J. Atmos. Sci.,
70, 1297–1315, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-12-0131.1, 2013. a
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.
This paper presents a method to estimate the height of the top of clouds above Earth's surface...