Abstract
Abstract. This study shows that it is possible to retrieve the temporal evolution of cloud base heights in convective broken cloud fields from data of the SEVIRI instrument onboard the geostationary satellite Meteosat-9. Presented and discussed are time dependent base heights with a temporal resolution of 15 min from morning to afternoon. Cloud base heights retrieved from SEVIRI data are also compared with independent measurements of a ceilometer, with condensation levels calculated from radiosonde data and with base heights obtained from an application of the method to NOAA/AVHRR data. The validation has been performed for three days in the year 2007 and for seven test areas distributed over Germany and neighbouring countries. The standard deviations of the absolute differences between cloud base heights from Meteosat-9 and radiosonde measurements as well as between NOAA/AVHRR and Meteosat-9 results are both of the order of ±290 m. The correlation coefficient is 0.53 for the comparison of satellite with radiosonde measurements and 0.78 for the intercomparison of the satellite measurements. Furthermore, it is shown that the method retrieves the temporal evolution of cloud base heights in very good agreement with time dependent ceilometer measurements.
Highlights
Cloud properties play an essential role in the climate system because they significantly affect the energy budget in the Earth-atmosphere system
In the following we show new results, i.e. time dependent cloud base heights retrieved from Meteosat Second Generation (MSG)/Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI) data and compare them with temporally continuous measurements of a ceilometer, with condensation levels obtained from radiosonde data, and with cloud base heights retrieved from NOAA/Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data
Shown is the cloud base height (CBH) obtained from an application of the method to NOAA/AVHRR overpass data at noon-time as well as the CBH (LCL) resulting from radiosonde data at 12:00 UTC
Summary
Cloud properties play an essential role in the climate system because they significantly affect the energy budget in the Earth-atmosphere system. For retrieving cloud top heights from satellite data various algorithms have been developed that provide operational products Our ambition was to directly retrieve time dependent base heights of convective clouds by the use of data from the SEVIRI instrument onboard the European geostationary satellite Meteosat-9, in the following abbreviated as MSG (Meteosat Second Generation). This paper ties in with the method of retrieving cloud base heights from NOAA/AVHRR data that has already been introduced by Meerkotter and Zinner (2007). In the following we show new results, i.e. time dependent cloud base heights retrieved from MSG/SEVIRI data and compare them with temporally continuous measurements of a ceilometer, with condensation levels obtained from radiosonde data, and with cloud base heights retrieved from NOAA/AVHRR data.
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