Discretization of effective droplet radius in order to extract stratocumulus cloud parameters from NOAA-AVHRR channel 3

Albano Gonzalez; Fernando Rosa; Felix Herrera; Juan C. Perez

doi:10.1117/12.332709

14 December 1998 Discretization of effective droplet radius in order to extract stratocumulus cloud parameters from NOAA-AVHRR channel 3

Albano Gonzalez, Fernando Rosa, Felix Herrera, Juan C. Perez

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 3495, Satellite Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere III; (1998) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.332709
Event: Remote Sensing, 1998, Barcelona, Spain

Abstract

In this work, a method for the retrieval of droplet radius, temperature and optical thickness of oceanic stratocumulus is developed.It is based on night imagery obtained from the NOAA-AVHRR IR channels and an atmospheric radiative transfer model that makes use of the discrete ordinate method called DISORT. Using this mode, we have simulated the theoretical radiance that reaches the satellite supposing a planar homogeneous cloud layer. The stratocumulus clouds are assumed to be composed by spherical water droplets with a gamma size distribution that provides a particular effective radius. The single scattering parameters are deduced from Mie's theory. Once evaluated the model behavior, we must invert a non lineal system of three equations to obtain the cloud parameters from the channels, 3,4 and 5 brightness temperatures. The main problem is the behavior of the radiative parameters when the effective radius is varied, because exist several values that provide the same temperatures. That implies that the systems have not a unique solution and, in order to avoid this problem we propose an optimal radii discretization on the basis of the above-mentioned microphysical features.

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Albano Gonzalez, Fernando Rosa, Felix Herrera, and Juan C. Perez "Discretization of effective droplet radius in order to extract stratocumulus cloud parameters from NOAA-AVHRR channel 3", Proc. SPIE 3495, Satellite Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere III, (14 December 1998); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.332709

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