Interannual Variations of Clouds Observed by A-Train Satellites

The three NASA A-train satellites, CALIPSO, Aura MLS and CloudSat fly in formation and provide unprecedented 3-dimensional measurements of cloud profiles nearly simultaneously. CALIPSO is sensitive to thin cirrus and provides information on multiple cloud layers as long as they are not too thick. The newly released CALIPSO (V3.01) Ice Water Content (IWC) profile data in conjunction with Aura MLS and CloudSat is used to describe interannual variations of tropical clouds from 2006 to 2010. During this period both El Nino and La Nina were observed and the phase shift in Indian Ocean Dipole events of 2006, 2007 and 2008 is studied. We also examine clouds by large-scale parameters ω500, OLR, temperature, SST, etc. from this datasets. The impacts of clouds on radiation will also be estimated.