Abstract
AbstractThe Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) aboard Aqua provides essential long‐term data on vertical cloud fraction, particularly valuable in the Arctic region. This study offers a comprehensive assessment of Arctic vertical cloud fraction derived from AIRS through a comparison with independent ground‐ and space‐based radar and lidar observations. In comparison to the measurements at the North Slope Alaska site, results reveal a significant underestimation of low‐level cloud cover by AIRS, especially for near‐surface clouds, while mid‐ and high‐level cloud fractions show better consistency. In comparison to the satellite‐based product from 3S‐GEOPROF‐COMB, the accuracy varies across different underlying surfaces (land vs. sea) and seasons. AIRS shows significant positive biases in mid‐level cloud fraction over sea surfaces with sea ice concentration below 15%, indicating potential limitations in the cloud retrieval algorithm in regions with large sea ice variations. The issue of low‐level clouds identification is primarily caused by the limited penetrating capability of infrared hyperspectral sensing and the accuracy of preceding surface and atmospheric state products, which diminish the accuracy of AIRS low‐level cloud fraction.
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