References

ACPD

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions

ACPD

1680-7375

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acpd-10-25619-2010

Global retrieval of ATSR cloud parameters and evaluation (GRAPE): dataset assessment

Sayer

A. M.

¹ ² Poulsen

C. A.

² Arnold

¹ Campmany

¹ ⁴ Dean

¹ ⁵ Ewen

G. B. L.

¹ ⁶ Grainger

R. G.

¹ Lawrence

B. N.

² Siddans

² Thomas

G. E.

¹ Watts

P. D.

Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PU, UK

Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, \newline OX11 0QX, UK

EUMETSAT, Eumetsat-Allee 1, 64295 Darmstadt, Germany

now at: Earth Sciences Department, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Jordi Girona 29, Barcelona 08034, Spain

now at: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Wellington, New Zealand

now at: Credit Suisse, One Cabot Square, London E14 4QJ, UK

02 11 2010

10 11 25619 25686

This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/25619/2010/acpd-10-25619-2010.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/25619/2010/acpd-10-25619-2010.pdf

The Along-Track Scanning Radiometers (ATSRs) provide a long time-series of measurements suitable for the retrieval of cloud properties. This work evaluates the freely-available Global Retrieval of ATSR Cloud Parameters and Evaluation (GRAPE) dataset (version 3) created from the ATSR-2 (1995–2003) and Advanced ATSR (AATSR; 2002 onwards) records. Users are recommended to consider only retrievals flagged as high-quality, where there is a good consistency between the measurements and the retrieved state (corresponding to about 60% of converged retrievals over sea, and more than 80% over land). Cloud properties are found to be generally free of any significant spurious trends relating to satellite zenith angle. Estimates of the random error on retrieved cloud properties are suggested to be generally appropriate for optically-thick clouds, and up to a factor of two too small for optically-thin cases. The correspondence between ATSR-2 and AATSR cloud properties is high, but a relative calibration difference between the sensors of order 5–10% at 660 nm and 870 nm limits the potential of the current version of the dataset for trend analysis. As ATSR-2 is thought to have the better absolute calibration, the discussion focusses on this portion of the record. Cloud-top heights from GRAPE compare well to ground-based data at four sites, particularly for shallow clouds. Clouds forming in boundary-layer inversions are typically around 1 km too high in GRAPE due to poorly-resolved inversions in the modelled temperature profiles used. Global cloud fields are compared to satellite products derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) measurements, and a climatology of liquid water content derived from satellite microwave radiometers. In all cases the main reasons for differences are linked to differing sensitivity to, and treatment of, multi-layer cloud systems. The correlation coefficient between GRAPE and the two MODIS products considered is generally high (greater than 0.7 for most cloud properties), except for liquid and ice cloud effective radius, which also show biases between the datasets. For liquid clouds, part of the difference is linked to choice of wavelengths used in the retrieval. Total cloud cover is slightly lower in GRAPE (0.64) than the CALIOP dataset (0.66). GRAPE underestimates liquid cloud water path relative to microwave radiometers by up to 100 g m<sup>−2</sup> near the Equator and overestimates by around 50 g m<sup>−2</sup> in the storm tracks. Finally, potential future improvements to the algorithm are outlined.

References 1

Arking,~A.: The radiative effects of clouds and their impact on climate, B Am. Meteorol. Soc., 72, 795–953, \doi10.1175/1520-0477(1991)072$<$0795:TREOCA$>$2.0.CO;2, 1991.

Baum,~B A., Yang,~P., Hu,~Y.-X., and Feng,~Q.: The impact of ice particle roughness on the scattering phase matrix, J Quant. Spectrosc. Ra, 111(17–18), 2534–2549, 2010.

Brennan,~J I., Kaufman,~Y J., Koren,~I., and Li,~R R.: Aerosol-cloud interaction-misclassification of MODIS clouds in heavy aerosol, IEEE~T. Geosci. Remote, 43, 911–915, \doi10.1109/TGRS.2005.844662, 2005.

Bulgin,~C E., Palmer,~P I., Thomas,~G E., Arnold,~C P G., Campmany,~E., Carboni,~E., Grainger,~R G., Poulsen,~C., Siddans,~R., and Lawrence,~B N.: Regional and seasonal variations of the Twomey indirect effect as observed by the ATSR-2 satellite instrument, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L02811, \doi10.1029/2007GL031394, 2008.

Chen,~R., Wood,~R., Li,~Z., Ferraro,~R., and Chang,~F.-L.: Studying the vertical variation of cloud droplet effective radius using ship and space-borne remote sensing data, J Geophys. Res., 113, D00A02, \doi10.1029/2007JD009596, 2008.

Chepfer,~H., Bony,~S., Winker,~D., Cesana,~G., Dufresne,~J L., Minnis,~P., Stubenrauch,~C J., and Zeng,~S.: The GCM oriented CALIPSO cloud product (CALIPSO-GOCCP), J Geophys. Res., 115, D00H16, \doi10.1029/2009JD012251, 2010.

Clothiaux,~E E., Ackerman,~T P., Mace,~G G., Moran,~K P., Marchand,~R T., Miller,~M A., and Martner,~B E.: Objective determination of cloud heights and radar reflectivities using a combination of active remote sensors at the ARM CART sites, J Appl. Meteorol., 39, 645–665, \doi10.1175/1520-0450(2000)039$<$0645:ODOCHA$>$2.0.CO;2, 2000.

Clothiaux,~E E., Miller,~M A., Perez,~R C., Turner,~D D., Moran,~K P., Martner,~B E., Ackerman,~T P., Mace,~G G., Marchand,~R T., Widener,~K B., Rodriguez,~D J., Uttal,~T., Mather,~J H., Flynn,~C J., Gaustad,~K L., and Ermold,~B.: The ARM Millimeter Wave Cloud Radars (MMCRs) and the Active Remote Sensing of Clouds (ARSCL) Value Added Product (VAP), U.S. Department of Energy, Washington,~D.C., DOE Tech. Memo. ARM VAP-002.1; retrieved from http://science.arm.gov/vaps/arscl.stm (last access: November 2009), 2001.

Cooper,~S J., L'Ecuyer,~T S., Gabriel,~P., Baran,~A J., and Stephens,~G L.: Objective assessment of the information content of visible and infrared radiance measurements for cloud microphysical property retrievals over the global oceans. Part~II:~Ice clouds, J Appl. Meteorol. Clim., 45, 45–62, \doi10.1175/JAM2327.1, 2006.

ECMWF: Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) documentation, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting, available at: http://www.ecmwf.int/research/ifsdocs/ (last access: June 2010), 2008.

Forster,~P., Ramaswamy,~V., Artaxo,~P., Berntsen,~T., Betts,~R., Fahey,~D W., Haywood,~J., Lean,~J., Lowe,~D C., Myhre,~G., Nganga,~J., Prinn,~R., Raga,~G., Schulz,~M., and Van~Dorland,~R.: Changes in atmospheric constituents and in radiative forcing, in: Climate Change 2007, the physical science basis. Contribution of Working Group~1 to the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited by: Solomon, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., Chen, Z., Marquis, M., Averyt, K. B., Tignor, M., and Miller, H. L., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, USA, 2007.

Garay,~M J., de~Szoeke,~S P., and Moroney,~C M.: Comparison of marine stratocumulus cloud top heights in the Southeastern Pacific retrieved from satellites with coincident ship-based observations, J Geophys. Res., 113, D18204, \doi10.1029/2008JD009975, 2008.

Ham,~S.-H., Sohn,~B.-J., Yang,~P., and Baum,~B A.: Assessment of the quality of MODIS cloud products from radiance simulations, J Appl. Meteorol., 48, 1591–1612, \doi10.1175/\break2009JAMC2121.1, 2009.

Hansen,~J., Sato,~M., and Ruedy,~R.: Radiative forcing and climate response, J Geophys. Res., 102, 6831–6864, \doi10.1029/96JD03436, 1997.

Heidinger,~A K. and Pavolonis,~M J.: Gazing at cirrus clouds for 25 years through a split window. Part~I: Methodology, J Appl. Meteorol., 48, 1110–1116, \doi10.1175/2008JAMC1882.1, 2009.

Ho,~S.-P., Lin,~B., Minnis,~P., and Fan,~T.-F.: Estimates of cloud vertical structure and water amount over tropical oceans using VIRS and TMI data, J Geophys. Res., 108(D14), 4419, \doi10.1029/2002JD003298, 2003.

Holz,~R E., Ackerman,~S A.,~W.,~N F., Frey,~R., Dutcher,~S., Kuehn,~R E., Vaughan,~M A., and Baum,~B.: Global Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud detection and height evaluation using CALIOP, J Geophys. Res., 113, D00A19, \doi10.1029/2008JD009837, 2008.

Hurley, J., Dudhia, A., and Grainger, R. G.: Cloud detection for MIPAS using singular vector decomposition, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 2, 533–547, doi:10.5194/amt-2-533-2009, 2009.

Iwabuchi,~H. and Hayasaka,~T.: Effects of cloud horizontal inhomogeneity on the optical thickness retrieved from moderate-resolution satellite data, J Atmos. Sci., 59, 2227–2242, 2002.

King,~M D., Platnick,~S., Hubanks,~P A., Arnold,~G T., Moody,~E G., Wind,~G., and Wind,~B.: Collection 005 change summary for the MODIS cloud optical property (06_OD) algorithm, version 3.1, NASA, available at: http://modis-atmos.gsfc.nasa.gov/C005_Changes/C005_CloudOpticalProperties_ver311.pdfhttp://modis-atmos.gsfc.nasa.gov/C005_Changes/\breakC005_CloudOpticalProperties_ver311.pdf (last access: June 2010), 2006.

Kobayashi,~T.: Significant differences in the cloud droplet effective radius between nonprecipitating and precipitating clouds, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L15811, \doi10.1029/2007GL029606, 2007.

Kokhanovsky,~A A., Vountas,~M., Rozanov,~V V., Lotz,~W., Bovensmann,~H., and Burrows,~J P.: Global cloud top height and thermodynamic phase distributions as obtained by SCIAMACHY on ENVISAT, Int J. Remote Sens., 28, 4499–4507, \doi10.1080/01431160701250366, 2007.

Lean,~K.: Empirical methods for detecting atmospheric aerosol events from satellite measurements, MPhys report, University of Oxford, available at: http://www.atm.ox.ac.uk/group/eodg/mphys_reports/2009_Lean.pdfhttp://www.atm.ox.ac.uk/group/eodg/\breakmphys_reports/2009_Lean.pdf, 2009.

Maddux,~B C., Ackerman,~S A., and Platnick,~S.: View geometry dependencies in MODIS cloud products, J Atmos. Ocean. Tech., 27, 1519–1528, doi:10.1175/2010JTECHA1432.1, 2010.

Marshak,~A., Platnick,~S., Várnai,~T., Wen,~G., and Calahan,~R F.: Impact of three-dimensional radiative effects on satellite retrievals of cloud droplet sizes, J Geophys. Res., 111, D09207, \doi10.1029/2005JD006686, 2006.

Minnis,~P., Trepte,~Q Z., Sun-Mack,~S., Chen,~Y., Doelling,~D R., Young,~D F., Spangenberg,~D A., Miller,~W F., Wielicki,~B A., Brown,~R R., Gibson,~S C., and Geier,~E B.: Cloud detection in nonpolar regions for CERES using TRMM VIRS and Terra and Aqua MODIS data, IEEE~T. Geosci. Remote, 46, 3857–3884, \doi10.1109/TGRS.2008.2001351, 2008.

Minnis,~P., Sun-Mack,~S., Chen,~Y., Khaiyer,~M M., Yi,~Y., Ayers,~J K., Brown,~R R., Dong,~X., Gibson,~S C., Heck,~P W., Lin,~B., Bordeen,~M L., Nguyen,~L., Palikonda,~R., Smith, Jr.,~W L., Spangenberg,~D A., Repte,~Q Z., and Xi,~B.: CERES Edition-2 cloud property retrievals using TRMM VIRS and Terra and Aqua MODIS data. Part~II: Examples of average results and comparisons with other data, IEEE~T. Geosci. Remote, submitted, 2010a.

Minnis,~P., Sun-Mack,~S., Young,~D F., Heck,~P W., Garber,~D P., Chen,~Y., Spangenberg,~D A., Arduini,~R F., Trepte,~Q Z., Smith, Jr.,~W L., Ayers,~J K., Gibson,~S C., Miller,~W F., Chakrapani,~V., Takano,~Y., Liou,~K.-N., and Xie,~Y.: CERES Edition-2 cloud property retrievals using TRMM VIRS and Terra and Aqua MODIS data. Part~I: Algorithms, IEEE~T. Geosci. Remote, submitted, 2010b.

Moroney,~C., Davies,~R., and Muller,~J.-P.: Operational retrieval of cloud-top heights using MISR data, IEEE~T. Geosci. Remote, 40, 1532–1540, \doi10.1109/TGRS.2002.801150, 2002.

Muller,~J.-P., Denis,~M.-A., Dundar,~R D., Mitchell,~K L., Naud,~C., and Mannstein,~H.: Stereo cloud-top heights and cloud fraction retrieval from ATSR-2, Int J. Remote Sens., 28, 1921–1938, \doi10.1080/01431160601030975, 2007.

NASA: Collection 5 Changes to MODIS Cloud Top Properties (06_CT), Version 2, NASA, available at: http://modis-atmos.gsfc.nasa.gov/C005_Changes/C005_MOD06CT_ver2.pdfhttp://modis-atmos.gsfc.nasa.gov/C005_Changes/C005_MOD06CT_ver2.pdf, access: Jun 2010, 2005.

O'Dell,~C W., Wentz,~F J., and Bennartz,~R.: Cloud liquid water path from satellite-based passive microwave observations: a~new climatology over the global oceans, J Climate, 21, 1721–1739, \doi10.1175/2007JCLI1958.1, 2008.

Platnick,~S.: Vertical photon transport in cloud remote sensing problems, J Geophys. Res., 105, 22919–22935, \doi10.1029/2000JD900333, 2000.

Platnick,~S., King,~M D., Ackerman,~S A., Menzel,~W P., Baum,~B., Riédi,~J C., and Frey,~R A.: The MODIS cloud products: algorithms and examples from Terra, IEEE~T. Geosci. Remote, 41, 459–473, \doi10.1016/S0034-4257(98)00031-5, 2003.

Poulsen,~C A., Siddans,~R., Lawrence,~B., Campmany,~E., Grainger,~R G., Thomas,~G E., Sayer,~A M., Dean,~S., and Watts,~P D.: Cloud retrievals from satellite data using optimal estimation, in preparation, 2010.

Preusker,~R. and Lindstrot,~R.: Remote sensing of cloud-top pressure using moderately resolved measurements within the oxygen A~band – a~sensitivity study, J Appl. Meteorol., 48, 1562–1574, \doi10.1175/2009JAMC2074.1, 2009.

Quaas,~J., Ming,~Y., Menon,~S., Takemura,~T., Wang,~M., Penner,~J E., Gettelman,~A., Lohmann,~U., Bellouin,~N., Boucher,~O., Sayer,~A M., Thomas,~G E., McComiskey,~A., Feingold,~G., Hoose,~C., Kristjánsson,~J E., Liu,~X., Balkanski,~Y., Donner,~L J., Ginoux,~P A., Stier,~P., Grandey,~B., Feichter,~J., Sednev,~I., Bauer,~S E., Koch,~D., Grainger,~R G., Kirkevåg,~A., Iversen,~T., Seland, Ø., Easter,~R., Ghan,~S J., Rasch,~P J., Morrison,~H., Lamarque,~J.-F., Iacono,~M J., Kinne,~S., and Schulz,~M.: Aerosol indirect effects – general circulation model intercomparison and evaluation with satellite data, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 8697–8717, \doi10.5194/acp-9-8697-2009, 2009.

Rodgers,~C D.: Inverse Methods for Atmospheric Sounding: Theory and Practice, Series on Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, vol 2, World Scientific, Singapore, New Jersey, London, and Hong Kong, 2000.

Rossow,~W B. and Schiffer,~R A.: ISCCP cloud data products, B Am. Meteorol. Soc., 113, \doi10.1175/1520-0477(1991)072$<$0002:ICDP$>$2.0.CO;2, 1991.

Sayer,~A M. and Grainger,~R G.: Ship tracks: modification of cloud properties and radiative forcing estimate from ATSR-2 data, Met. Zeit., submitted, 2010.

Schaaf,~C B., Gao,~F., Strahler,~A H., Lucht,~W., Li,~X., Tsang,~T., Strugnell,~N C., Zhang,~X., Jin,~Y., Muller,~J.-P., Lewis,~P., Barnsley,~M., Hobson,~P., Disney,~M., Roberts,~G., Dunderdale,~M., Doll,~C., d'Entremont,~R P., Hu,~B., Liang,~S., Privette,~J L., and Roy,~D.: First operational BRDF, albedo nadir reflectance products from MODIS, Remote Sens. Environ., 83, 135–148, \doi10.1016/S0034-4257(02)00091-3, 2002.

Siddans,~R., Poulsen,~C., and Carboni,~E.: Cloud model for operational retrievals from MSG SEVIRI: draft final report, version 1.1, EUMetSat, Darmstadt, 2009.

Smith,~D., Delderfield,~J., Drummond,~D., Edwards,~T., Mutlow,~C., Read,~P., and Toplis,~G.: Calibration of the AATSR instrument, Adv. Space Res., 28, 31–39, \doi10.1016/S0273-1177(01)00273-3, 2001.

Smith,~D., Poulsen,~C., and Latter,~B.: (A)ATSR multmission calibration report, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, document PO-RP-RAL-AT-0599, version 1.1, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK, 2009.

Smith,~D L.: Impact on the performance of the ATSR instruments due to condensation, in: ESTEC Contamination Workshop, ESA, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, 2003.

Smith,~D L., Mutlow,~C T., and Rao,~C R N.: Calibration monitoring of the visible and near-infrared channels of the Along-Track Scanning Radiometer-2 by use of stable terrestrial sites, Appl. Optics, 41, 515–523, \doi10.1364/AO.41.000515, 2002.

Stephens,~G L.: Cloud feedbacks in the climate system: a~critical review, J Climate, 18, 237–273, \doi10.1175/JCLI-3243.1, 2005.

Stephens,~G L., Vane,~D G., Tanelli,~S., Im,~E., Durden,~S., Rokey,~M., Reinke,~D., Partain,~P., Mace,~G G., Austin,~R., L'Ecuyer,~T., Jaynes,~J., Lebsock,~N., Suzuki,~K., Walisder,~D., Wu,~D., Kay,~J., Gettelman,~A., Wang,~Z., and Marchand,~R.: CloudSat mission: performance and early science after the first year of operation, J Geophys. Res., 113, D00A18, \doi10.1029/2008JD009982, 2008.

Stevens,~B. and Feingold,~G.: Untangling aerosol effects on clouds and precipitation in a buffered system, Nature, 461, 607–613, \doi10.1038/nature08281, 2009.

Thomas, G. E., Poulsen, C. A., Sayer, A. M., Marsh, S. H., Dean, S. M., Carboni, E., Siddans, R., Grainger, R. G., and Lawrence, B. N.: The GRAPE aerosol retrieval algorithm, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 2, 679–701, doi:10.5194/amt-2-679-2009, 2009.

Thomas, G. E., Poulsen, C. A., Siddans, R., Sayer, A. M., Carboni, E., Marsh, S. H., Dean, S. M., Grainger, R. G., and Lawrence, B. N.: Validation of the GRAPE single view aerosol retrieval for ATSR-2 and insights into the long term global AOD trend over the ocean, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 4849–4866, doi:10.5194/acp-10-4849-2010, 2010.

Uppala,~S M., Kållberg,~P W., Simmons,~A J., Andae,~U., da~Costa~Bechtold,~V., Fiorino,~M., Gibson,~J K., Haseler,~J., Hernandez,~A., Kelly,~G A., Li,~X., Onogi,~K., Saarinen,~S., Sokka,~N., Allan,~R P., Andersson,~E., Arpe,~K., Balmaseda,~M A., Bljaars,~A C M., van~de Berg,~L., Bidlot,~J., Bormann,~N., Caires,~S., Chevallier,~F., Dethof,~A., Dragosavac,~M., Fisher,~M., Fuentes,~M., Hagemann,~S., Hólm,~E., Hoskins,~B J., Isaksen,~L., Janssen,~P A E M., Jenne,~R., McNaly,~A P., Mahfouf,~J.-F., Morcrette,~J.-J., Rayner,~N A., Saunders,~R W., Simon,~P., Sterl,~A., Trenberth,~K E., Untch,~A., Vasiljevic,~D., Viterbo,~P., and Woolen,~J.: The ERA-40 re-analysis, Q J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 131, 2961–3012, \doi10.1256/qj.04.176, 2005.

Wanner,~W., Strahler,~A., Hu,~B., Lewis,~P., Muller,~J., Li,~X., Barker~Schaaf,~C., and Barnsley,~M.: Global retrieval of bidirectional reflectance and albedo over land from EOS MODIS and MISR data: theory and algorithm, J Geophys. Res., 102, 17143–17161, \doi10.1029/96JD03295, 1997.

Wentz,~F J.: A~well-calibrated ocean algorithm for special sensor microwave/imager, J Geophys. Res., 102, 8703–8718, 1997.

Wentz,~F J. and Spencer,~R W.: Intercalibrated passive microwave rain products from the Unified Microwave Ocean Retrieval Algorithm (UMORA), J Appl. Meteorol. Clim., 47, 778–794, \doi10.1175/2007JAMC1635.1, 2008.

Winker,~D M., Hunt,~W H., and McGill,~M J.: Initial performance assessment of CALIOP, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L19803, \doi10.1029/2007GL030135, 2007.

Wolters,~E L A., Deneke,~H M., van~den Hurk,~B J J M., Meinrik,~J F., and Roebeling,~R A.: Broken and inhomogeneous cloud impact on satellite cloud particle radius and cloud-phase retrievals, J Geophys. Res., 115, D10214, \doi10.1029/2009JD012205, 2010.

Wylie,~D P., Menzel,~W P., Woolf,~H M., and Strabala,~K I.: Four years of global cirrus cloud statistics using HIRS, J Climate, 7, 1972–1988, \doi10.1175/1520-0442(1994)007$<$1972:FYOGCC$>$2.0.CO;2, 1994.

Závody,~A M., Mutlow,~C T., and Llewellyn-Jones,~D T.: A~radiative transfer model for sea surface temperature retrieval from the Along-Track Scanning Radiometer, J Geophys. Res., 100, 937–952, \doi10.1029/94JC02170, 1995.

Závody,~A M., Mutlow,~C T., and Llewellyn-Jones,~D T.: Cloud clearing over the ocean in the processing of data from the Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR), J Atmos. Ocean Tech., 17, 595–615, \doi10.1175/1520-0426(2000)017$<$0595:CCOTOI$>$2.0.CO;2, 2000.

Zhang,~Z., Yang,~P., Kattawar,~G., Riedi,~J., -Labonnote,~L C., Baum,~B A., Platnick,~S., and Huang,~H.-L.: Influence of ice particle model on satellite ice cloud retrieval: lessons learned from MODIS and POLDER cloud product comparison, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 7115–7129, \doi10.5194/acp-9-7115-2009, 2009.