HR: 1340h
AN: A43D-0133    [Abstracts]
TI: Radiation Budget Estimates from MODIS
AU: * Wang, H
EM: hwang@atmos.umd.edu
AF: Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AU: Pinker, R T
EM: pinker@atmos.umd.edu
AF: Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AB: Satellite estimates of surface radiative fluxes are usually evaluated within the intrinsic restrictions of the evaluation process. Primary limitations are due to the incompatibility of the satellite and the ground observations, and the spatial resolution of the satellite footprint used. Other restrictions are due to issues related to the auxiliary data needed to drive the inference schemes. In most cases, the spatial and temporal resolution of such data is not consistent with the satellite observations. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) instrument on board Terra and Aqua satellites provides information that can remove some of the above limitations. In particular, due to the high spectral resolution of the sensor, it is possible to derive most of the parameters needed to drive the radiative inference schemes and as such, the various model input data are collocated in space and time. Moreover, it is believed that the numerous channels that are available on MODIS can better detect and estimate clouds, aerosols, and the spectral variability of the surface. Therefore, it is of interest to utilize atmospheric and surface variables at high spatial resolution provided by MODIS to establish uncertainty limits in current capabilities to estimate remotely solar radiation at the surface. Specifically, the University of Maryland Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX)/ Surface Radiation Budget (SRB) model was modified so that atmospheric and surface parameters from MODIS can be directly used to estimate the radiative fluxes. The input parameters for driving this modified version include viewing geometry, column water vapor, column ozone amount, cloud fraction, cloud optical depth, aerosol optical depth and spectral surface albedo. The daily Level-2 MODIS cloud, aerosol and profile products are used over the United States at a resolution of 10 km. The estimated surface downward short-wave fluxes are compared with other available products and ground truth. The results of this comparison will be presented.
DE: 0321 Cloud/radiation interaction
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005