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- Title
A cautionary use of DCC as a solar calibration target: explaining the regional difference in DCC reflectivity.
- Authors
Choi, M.-J.; Sohn, B. J.
- Abstract
This study attempted to explain why deep convective clouds (DCCs) over the western Pacific are generally darker than those found over tropical African and South American land regions. For defining 1 km pixel DCCs in this study, 205 K of Aqua- MODIS brightness temperature at 11 µm (TB11) was used as a criterion. Corresponding MODIS-measured reflectivities at 0.645 µm were examined, and an analysis of collocated Cloud Profile Radar (CPR) onboard CloudSat and Cloud Aerosol Lidar Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) measurements and derived cloud products was conducted. From an analysis of the four January months of 2007-2010, a distinct difference in ice water path (IWP) between the western Pacific and the two tropical land regions was demonstrated. Small but meaningful differences in the effective radius were also found. The results led to a conjecture that smaller IWP over the western Pacific than over the tropical land regions is the main cause of smaller reflectivity there. This finding suggests that regionally different reflectivity of DCCs over the tropics up to 5% on average are to be counted when those DCCs are used for the solar channel calibration.
- Subjects
CONVECTIVE clouds; TROPICAL crops; TEMPERATURE; CALIBRATION; NATURAL satellites
- Publication
Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions, 2015, Vol 8, Issue 3, p2409
- ISSN
1867-8610
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5194/amtd-8-2409-2015