HR: 08:50h
AN: A21F-04 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Validation of Satellite-Derived Cloud Properties Using TC4 Data
AU: * Minnis, P P
EM: patrick.minnis-1@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Langley Research Center, MS 420, Hampton, VA 23681, United States
AU: Nguyen, L
EM: louis.nguyen-1@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Langley Research Center, MS 420, Hampton, VA 23681, United States
AU: Smith, W L
EM: william.l.smith@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Langley Research Center, MS 420, Hampton, VA 23681, United States
AU: Ayers, J K
EM: jeffrey.k.ayers@nasa.gov
AF: SSAI, 1 Enterprise Pkwy, Hampton, VA 23666, United States
AU: Nordeen, M L
EM: michele.l.nordeen@nasa.gov
AF: SSAI, 1 Enterprise Pkwy, Hampton, VA 23666, United States
AU: Palikonda, R
EM: rabindra.palikonda-1@nasa.gov
AF: SSAI, 1 Enterprise Pkwy, Hampton, VA 23666, United States
AU: Spangenberg, D A
EM: douglas.a.spangenberg@nasa.gov
AF: SSAI, 1 Enterprise Pkwy, Hampton, VA 23666, United States
AB: Assessing the uncertainties in satellite-derived cloud properties is a challenging task because of the lack of ground truth measurements for many of the cloud systems occurring in remote areas. The NASA-sponsored Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Change Coupling (TC4) Mission conducted in Costa Rica during summer 2007 developed a variety of in situ and aircraft-based remote sensing datasets that are well suited for examining the errors in satellite-determined cloud parameters such as cloud top height, thickness, effective particle size, and overlap conditions. In this paper, cloud properties derived from the Twelfth Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-12) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on Terra and Aqua are compared with cloud lidar and radar taken from the NASA ER-2 and DC-8 aircraft during TC4 to evaluate the vertical structure of the clouds determined from the passive satellite imagers. Both low-level and high-altitude cirrus clouds are considered. Initial comparisons of cloud optical depth and effective particle size are also performed using passive retrievals from GOES and MODIS with in situ measurements taken by the DC-8 and the NASA WB-57 aircraft. The results will be valuable for understanding the diurnal cycle of cloud properties in the Tropics and for narrowing the acceptable range of cloud properties generated by climate models
UR: http://angler.larc.nasa.gov/tc4/
DE: 0319 Cloud optics
DE: 0320 Cloud physics and chemistry
DE: 3310 Clouds and cloud feedbacks
DE: 3311 Clouds and aerosols
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting