Comparison of AIRS, MODIS, CloudSat and CALIPSO cloud top height retrievals

Elisabeth Weisz, Jun Li, W. Paul Menzel, Andrew K. Heidinger, Brian H. Kahn, Chian Yi Liu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

120 Scopus citations

Abstract

Knowledge of cloud properties like cloud top height (CTH) is essential to understand their impact on the earth's radiation budget and on climate change. High spectral resolution measurements from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) are well suited to reveal valuable e information about cloud altitude. The CTH retrievals derived from AIRS single field-of-view (FOV) radiance measurements are compared with the operational MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) cloud product, and Level 2 products obtained from radar and lidar instruments onboard the EOS (Earth Observing System) CloudSat and the CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation) satellites. Two cases containing a variety of cloud conditions have been studied, and the strengths/shortcomings of CTH products from infrared (IR) sounder radiances are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberL17811
JournalGeophysical Research Letters
Volume34
Issue number17
DOIs
StatePublished - 16 Sep 2007

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