Tropical distributions of thin cirrus observed by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder
Abstract
We investigate the vertical and horizontal distributions of thin cirrus occurrence, as well as their optical and microphysical properties, over the tropical oceans using the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)/Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) suite onboard EOS Aqua. A clear-sky fast radiative transfer model (RT) coupled to a thin cirrus parameterization has recently been developed and validated for AIRS radiances that uses the operational AIRS standard product retrievals for surface quantities and atmospheric profiles of T(z) and RH(z). We explore some of the relationships between cirrus geographical distribution, optical depth, effective diameter, cloud top temperature, upper tropospheric water vapor, and sea surface temperature. Comparisons of these relationships between AIRS and those derived from other satellites and in situ measurements are made. The strengths and limitations of using hyper-spectral IR sounders such as AIRS to retrieve cirrus properties, and relating them to other geophysical quantities, are discussed.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006AGUFM.A52C..02K
- Keywords:
-
- 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345;
- 4801;
- 4906);
- 1640 Remote sensing (1855);
- 3311 Clouds and aerosols;
- 3359 Radiative processes;
- 3360 Remote sensing