A method is presented for determining the optical thickness (τc) and effective particle radius (re) of stratiform cloud layers from transmitted solar radiation measurements. A detailed study shows that the cloud optical thickness and effective particle radius of water clouds can be determined from transmission function measurements at 0.75 and 2.13 μm, provided that the scaled optical thickness τ′0.75>1 and re>5 μm. The wavelengths adopted by our study are similar to the channels of the moderate resolution imaging spectrometer (MODIS). The proposed method is invalid for optically thin clouds since transmission at 2.13 μm is less sensitive to re. The retrieval errors of τ′0.75 and re monotonically decrease with increasing τc. For clouds having τ′0.75≥2, the retrieval errors of τ′0.75 and re are below 10% and 20%, respectively. Transmissions at 0.75 and 1.65 μm can also be used to retrieve τc and re.
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机译:Ice Cloud Optical Thickness, Effective Radius, And Ice Water Path Inferred From Fused MISR and MODIS Measurements Based on a Pixel-Level Optimal Ice Particle Roughness Model
机译:Ice Cloud Optical Thickness, Effective Radius, And Ice Water Path Inferred From Fused MISR and MODIS Measurements Based on a Pixel‐Level Optimal Ice Particle Roughness Model
机译:The retrieval of total optical depth and effective droplet radius of clouds from solar reflection measurements using the Along Track Scanning Radiometer‐2 (ATSR‐2)