Retrieval of cloud top height, effective emissivity, and particle size, from aircraft high-spectral resolution infrared measurements

Paolo B. Antonelli; Steven A. Ackerman; W. Paul Menzel; Hung-Lung Huang; Bryan A. Baum; William L. Smith

doi:10.1117/12.454468

31 January 2002 Retrieval of cloud top height, effective emissivity, and particle size, from aircraft high-spectral-resolution infrared measurements

Paolo B. Antonelli, Steven A. Ackerman, W. Paul Menzel, Hung-Lung Huang, Bryan A. Baum, William L. Smith

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 4539, Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere VI; (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.454468
Event: International Symposium on Remote Sensing, 2001, Toulouse, France

Abstract

In this study we compare different approaches to retrieve Cloud Top Height (CTH), Cloud Effective Emissivity (CEE), and the Cloud Particle Size (CPS) from aircraft high-spectral resolution infrared measurements. Two independent methods are used to infer CTH. One approach is based on a high spectral resolution version of the CO₂ Slicing algorithm characterized by a statistically based selection of the optimal channel pairs. Another approach the Minimum Local Emissivity Variance algorithm (MLEV) takes advantage of high-resolution observations in the 8-12 micron region to simultaneously derive CTH and CEE. Once CTH has been retrieved a third method, based on the comparison between simulated and observed radiances, is used to infer CPS and CEE. Simulated radiances are computed for 18 microwindows between 8.5 and 12 microns. The cirrus scattering calculations are based on three-dimensional randomly oriented ice columns assuming six different particle size distributions. Multiple scattering calculations are performed for 26 different cloud optical thicknesses (COT) between 0 and 20. The simulated radiances are then compared to the observed radiances to infer COT and CPS for each spectral measurement. We applied these approaches to High-resolution Interferometer Sounder (HIS), National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Airborne Sounder Testbed-Interferometer (NAST-I) and Scanning-HIS (S-HIS) data. The preliminary results, consistent between the different algorithms, suggest that the high spectral resolution measurements improve the accuracy of the cloud property retrievals.

Citation Download Citation

Paolo B. Antonelli, Steven A. Ackerman, W. Paul Menzel, Hung-Lung Huang, Bryan A. Baum, and William L. Smith "Retrieval of cloud top height, effective emissivity, and particle size, from aircraft high-spectral-resolution infrared measurements", Proc. SPIE 4539, Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere VI, (31 January 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.454468

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available

Members: $17.00

Non-members: $21.00 ADD TO CART

PROCEEDINGS
12 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

Clouds

Particles

LIDAR

Carbon dioxide

Commercial off the shelf technology

Infrared radiation

Spectral resolution

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years