Estimation of the cloud effective particle radius using MTSAT-1R data

Abstract

The algorithm used to retrieve the cloud effective particle radius from the 3.7 μm band was adapted to the corresponding channel of the Japanese Advanced Meteorological Imager (JAMI) flown on board the Multi-functional Transport Satellite (MTSAT) geostationary platform. Snapshot comparisons with spatially well-resolved retrievals from the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) instruments flown on the Terra polar platforms show qualitative agreement with MTSAT retrievals. The results of analysing daytime variation from eastern Asia to the northwest Pacific Ocean show that, not only is the effective particle radius smaller in continental clouds than in maritime clouds, but the daytime amplitude of the effective particle radius is also greater in continental clouds than in maritime clouds, where the effective particle radius value is approximately constant.