Cloud reflectance characteristics in the presence of variable dimethylsulfide (DMS) sources.

• Main Author: Eisman, Greg A.
• Other Authors: Durkee, Philip A., Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.), Meteorology, Wash, Carlyle H.
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School 1989
• Subjects: DMS; silicon anomaly; AVHRR; satellite imagery; Denmark Strait
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10945/26915

Oceanic dimethylsulfide (DMS) sources are inferred from silicon anomaly information in the Denmark Strait during June 1984. This June 1984 "bloom" of the phytoplankton species Phaecystes pouchetti, a known DMS producer, is compared to the "non-bloom" of June 1982 using NOAA-7 AVHRR data from channel 1 (.63 μm), channel 3 (3.7 μm) and channel 4 (11.0 μm) wavelengths. After examining the AVHRR color-enhanced data for each individual day, composites for June 1982 and June 1984 are created for channel 1 and channel 3 wavelengths. These composites eliminated day-to-day differences in reflectances by averaging data which were neither cloud-free nor high-cloud contaminated. Based on these composites, evidence is presented which suggests that a correlation exists between inferred-DMS source regions and higher reflectance values at channel 3 wavelengths. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. Lieutenant, United States Navy http://archive.org/details/cloudreflectance1094526915