Abstract
Comparing cloud cover (CC) products from different satellites with the same ground-based CC dataset provides information on the similarities or differences of values among satellite products. For this reason, 42-month CC products from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer’s (MODIS) Collection 6.1 daily cloud cover products (MOD06_L2, MYD06_L2, MOD08_D3, and MYD08_D3) and Himawari-8 are compared with the ground-based camera datasets. The comparison shows that CC from MODIS differs from ground measurement CC by as much as 57% over Chiba, Japan, when low CC is observed by the camera. This indicates MODIS’s ability to capture high-level clouds that are not effectively seen from the ground. When the camera detects high CC, an indication of the presence of low-level clouds, CC from MODIS is relatively higher than the CC from the camera. In the case of Himawari-8 data, when the camera observes low CC, this difference is around 0.7%. This result indicates that high-level clouds are not effectively observed, but the Himawari-8 data correlates well with camera observations. When the camera observes high CC, Himawari-8-derived CC is lower by around 10% than CC from the camera. These results show the potential of continuous observations of nighttime clouds using the camera to provide a dataset that can be used for intercomparison among nighttime satellite CC products.
Highlights
Atmospheric clouds are composed of minute liquid droplets and ice crystals in the atmosphere
When the camera detects high cloud cover (CC), an indication of the presence of low-level clouds, CC from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) is relatively higher than the CC from the camera
When the camera observes high CC, Himawari-8-derived CC is lower by around 10% than CC from the camera. These results show the potential of continuous observations of nighttime clouds using the camera to provide a dataset that can be used for intercomparison among nighttime satellite CC products
Summary
Atmospheric clouds are composed of minute liquid droplets and ice crystals in the atmosphere. Clouds can enhance the Earth’s atmospheric cooling or warming effects. The extent of cloud cover (CC) is one of the parameters that regulate the amount of net radiative flux in the atmosphere [1,2]. Cloud type and albedo control the net radiation balance in the atmosphere [3]. Radiative feedback from clouds has high uncertainties, due to the uncertainty of the impact of low-level clouds on warming. The resulting positive feedback is still variable among model simulations and not properly constrained by observations [4,5,6]. Longwave effects dominate since clouds reradiate longwave radiation from the ground. Low-level clouds such as cumulus, cumulonimbus, and stratocumulus are observed by ground-based image sensors such as cameras
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