Articles | Volume 17, issue 18
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5655-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5655-2024
Research article
 | 
26 Sep 2024
Research article |  | 26 Sep 2024

Marine cloud base height retrieval from MODIS cloud properties using machine learning

Julien Lenhardt, Johannes Quaas, and Dino Sejdinovic

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Cited articles

Ackerman, S. A. and Frey, R.: MODIS Atmosphere L2 Cloud Mask Product (35_L2), NASA MODIS Adaptive Processing System [data set], Goddard Space Flight Center, USA, https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MYD35_L2.061, 2017. 
Baccianella, S., Esuli, A., and Sebastiani, F.: Evaluation Measures for Ordinal Regression, in: Ninth International Conference on Intelligent Systems Design and Applications, Pisa, Italy, 30 November–2 December 2009, IEEE, 283–287, https://doi.org/10.1109/ISDA.2009.230, 2009. 
Baldi, P.: Autoencoders, Unsupervised Learning, and Deep Architectures, in: Proceedings of the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), Workshop on Unsupervised and Transfer Learning, Proceedings of Machine Learning Research, 27, 37–49, https://proceedings.mlr.press/v27/baldi12a.html (last access: 8 February 2023), 2012. 
Baum, B. A., Menzel, W. P., Frey, R. A., Tobin, D. C., Holz, R. E., Ackerman, S. A., Heidinger, A. K., and Yang, P.: MODIS Cloud-Top Property Refinements for Collection 6, J. Appl. Meteorol. Clim., 51, 1145–1163, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-11-0203.1, 2012. 
Böhm, C., Sourdeval, O., Mülmenstädt, J., Quaas, J., and Crewell, S.: Cloud base height retrieval from multi-angle satellite data, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 1841–1860, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1841-2019, 2019. 
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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.
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