Comparison of different sensor data and characteristics of cirrus clouds

Abstract

Abstract The result of the analysis on the data without atmospheric correction observed with MESSR and VTIR onboard MOS-1, VISSR onboard GMS-3 and AVHRR onboard NOAA-9 indicate the following features. Thin cirrus identified on the image of high gain mode MESSR with albedo of 1 % higher than the sea surface affects the observed sea surface temperature by 1.5°C. The data obtained with GMS VISSR visible channel show a better result than that with VTIR for the target of lower albedo, while observed temperature with VISSR shows about 1 °C lower than that observed with Channel-3 VTIR. The albedo of the sea surface computed from the data of VISSR shows lower value ranging from 1 to 2 % while higher by 1 to 2 % compared with AVHRR channel 1 and 2 respectively. The observed temperature with VISSR is about 1 °C lower than that with Channel 4 of AVHRR while almost equal to that of Channel 5 of AVHRR. The result of adjustment on working bandwidth indicates a fairly good agreement of the values observed with different sensors over targets of comparatively uniform albedo and temperature leading to a conclusion on the advantage of multiple satellites' data in the fields requiring data of frequent observation or in the places where a chance of getting a cloudless image is rare.