Validation of the Cloud_CCI cloud products in the Arctic

• Main Authors: Vinjamuri, Kameswara S., Vountas, Marco, Lelli, Luca, Stengel, Martin, Shupe, Matthew D., Ebell, Kerstin, Burrows, John P.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Arctic; Ny-Ålesund; Climate change; north slope; Ny Ålesund; Alaska
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-312; https://amt.copernicus.org/preprints/amt-2022-312/

The role of clouds in the Arctic radiation budget is not well understood. Ground-based and airborne measurements provide valuable data to test and improve our understanding. However, the ground-based measurements are intrinsically sparse, and the airborne observations are snapshots in time and space. Passive remote sensing measurements from satellite sensors offer high spatial coverage and an evolving time series, having lengths potentially of decades. However, detecting clouds by passive satellite remote sensing sensors is challenging over the Arctic because of the brightness of snow and ice in the ultraviolet and visible spectral regions, and because of the small brightness temperature contrast to the surface. Consequently, the quality of the resulting cloud data products needs to be assessed quantitatively. In this study, we validate the cloud data products retrieved from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) post meridiem (PM) data from the polar-orbiting NOAA-19 satellite and compare them with those derived from the ground-based instruments during the sunlit months. The AVHRR cloud data products by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Cloud Climate Change Initiative (Cloud_CCI) project, which uses the observations in the visible and IR bands to determine cloud properties. The ground-based measurements from four high-latitude sites have been selected for this investigation: Hyytiälä (61.84° N, 24.29° E), North Slope of Alaska (NSA, 71.32° N, 156.61° W), Ny-Ålesund (Ny-Å, 78.92° N, 11.93° E), and Summit (72.59° N, 38.42° W). The Liquid Water Path (LWP) ground-based data are retrieved from microwave radiometers, while the Cloud Top Height (CTH) has been determined from the integrated lidar-radar measurements. The quality of the satellite products, Cloud Mask and Cloud Optical Depth (COD), have been assessed using data from NSA, whereas LWP and CTH have been investigated over Hyytiälä, NSA, Ny-Å, and Summit. The Cloud_CCI COD results for liquid water clouds are in better agreement with the NSA ...