Toward autonomous surface-based infrared remote sensing of polar clouds: cloud-height retrievals

Rowe, Penny M.; Cox, Christopher J.; Walden, Von P.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-3641-2016

Articles | Volume 9, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-3641-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-3641-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 9, issue 8

Research article

|

09 Aug 2016

Research article |

| 09 Aug 2016

Toward autonomous surface-based infrared remote sensing of polar clouds: cloud-height retrievals

Penny M. Rowe, Christopher J. Cox, and Von P. Walden

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Final revised paper (published on 09 Aug 2016)
Preprint (discussion started on 07 Mar 2016)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'review comments', Anonymous Referee #1, 27 Mar 2016
- AC1: 'Response to Reviewer 1', Penny Rowe, 31 May 2016
RC2: 'An interesting scoping study for new instrumentation that needs a few tweaks', Anonymous Referee #2, 07 Apr 2016
- AC2: 'Response to Reviewer 2', Penny Rowe, 31 May 2016

Short summary

Clouds play an important role in the rapid climate change occurring in polar regions, yet cloud measurements are challenging in such harsh, remote environments. Here we explore how well a proposed low-power infrared spectrometer, which would be highly portable, could be used to determine cloud height. Using simulated data, we estimate retrieval accuracy, finding that such an instrument would be able to constrain cloud height, particular for low, thick clouds, which are common in polar region.