Marine boundary layer cloud property retrievals from high-resolution ASTER observations: case studies and  comparison with Terra MODIS

Werner, Frank; Wind, Galina; Zhang, Zhibo; Platnick, Steven; Di Girolamo, Larry; Zhao, Guangyu; Amarasinghe, Nandana; Meyer, Kerry

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5869-2016

Articles | Volume 9, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5869-2016

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

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5869-2016

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

Articles | Volume 9, issue 12

Research article

|

08 Dec 2016

Research article |

| 08 Dec 2016

Marine boundary layer cloud property retrievals from high-resolution ASTER observations: case studies and comparison with Terra MODIS

Frank Werner, Galina Wind, Zhibo Zhang, Steven Platnick, Larry Di Girolamo, Guangyu Zhao, Nandana Amarasinghe, and Kerry Meyer

Data sets

MODIS data Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive & Distribution System/Distributed Active Archive Center http://ladsweb.nascom.nasa.gov/

ASTER data USGS (Earth Resources Observation and Science) http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov

Short summary

A research–level retrieval algorithm for cloud optical and microphysical properties is developed for the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) aboard the Terra satellite. This yields reliable estimates of important cloud variables at a horizontal resolution of 30 m. Comparisons of the ASTER retrieval results with the operational cloud products from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) show a high agreement for 48 example cloud fields.