scholarly journals Multiangular Polarized Characteristics of Optically Thin Cirrus in the Visible and Near-Infrared Spectral Region

2010 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 749-768 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. H. Cheng ◽  
X. F. Gu ◽  
L. F. Chen ◽  
T. Yu ◽  
G. L. Tian

Abstract Optically thin cirrus play a key role in the earth’s radiation budget and global climate change. Their radiative effects depend critically on the thin cirrus optical and microphysical properties. In this paper, inhomogeneous hexagonal monocrystals (IHMs), which consist of a pure hexagon with spherical air bubble or aerosol inclusions, are applied to calculate the single-scattering properties of individual ice crystals. The multiangular polarized characteristics of optically thin cirrus for the 0.865- and 1.38-μm spectral bands are simulated on the basis of an adding–doubling radiative transfer program. The sensitivity of total and polarized reflectance at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) to different aerosol, cirrus, and surface parameters is studied. A new sensitivity index is introduced to further quantify the sensitivity study. The TOA polarized reflectance measured by the Polarization and Directionality of the Earth’s Reflectance (POLDER) instruments is compared to simulated TOA total and polarized reflectance. The test results are reasonable, although small deviations caused by the change of aerosol properties and thin cirrus optical thickness do exist. Finally, on the basis of the sensitivity study, a conceptual approach is suggested to simultaneously retrieve thin cirrus clouds’ optical thickness, ice particle shape, and the underlying aerosol optical thickness using the TOA total and polarized reflectance of the 0.865- and 1.38-μm spectral bands measured at multiple viewing angles.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 536
Author(s):  
Eve Laroche-Pinel ◽  
Mohanad Albughdadi ◽  
Sylvie Duthoit ◽  
Véronique Chéret ◽  
Jacques Rousseau ◽  
...  

The main challenge encountered by Mediterranean winegrowers is water management. Indeed, with climate change, drought events are becoming more intense each year, dragging the yield down. Moreover, the quality of the vineyards is affected and the level of alcohol increases. Remote sensing data are a potential solution to measure water status in vineyards. However, important questions are still open such as which spectral, spatial, and temporal scales are adapted to achieve the latter. This study aims at using hyperspectral measurements to investigate the spectral scale adapted to measure their water status. The final objective is to find out whether it would be possible to monitor the vine water status with the spectral bands available in multispectral satellites such as Sentinel-2. Four Mediterranean vine plots with three grape varieties and different water status management systems are considered for the analysis. Results show the main significant domains related to vine water status (Short Wave Infrared, Near Infrared, and Red-Edge) and the best vegetation indices that combine these domains. These results give some promising perspectives to monitor vine water status.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1943-1958 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Fricke ◽  
A. Ehrlich ◽  
E. Jäkel ◽  
B. Bohn ◽  
M. Wirth ◽  
...  

Abstract. Airborne measurements of solar spectral radiance reflected by cirrus are performed with the HALO-Solar Radiation (HALO-SR) instrument onboard the High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft (HALO) in November 2010. The data are used to quantify the influence of surface albedo variability on the retrieval of cirrus optical thickness and crystal effective radius. The applied retrieval of cirrus optical properties is based on a standard two-wavelength approach utilizing measured and simulated reflected radiance in the visible and near-infrared spectral region. Frequency distributions of the surface albedos from Moderate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite observations are used to compile surface-albedo-dependent lookup tables of reflected radiance. For each assumed surface albedo the cirrus optical thickness and effective crystal radius are retrieved as a function of the assumed surface albedo. The results for the cirrus optical thickness are compared to measurements from the High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL). The uncertainty in cirrus optical thickness due to local variability of surface albedo in the specific case study investigated here is below 0.1 and thus less than that caused by the measurement uncertainty of both instruments. It is concluded that for the retrieval of cirrus optical thickness the surface albedo variability is negligible. However, for the retrieval of crystal effective radius, the surface albedo variability is of major importance, introducing uncertainties up to 50%. Furthermore, the influence of the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) on the retrieval of crystal effective radius was investigated and quantified with uncertainties below 10%, which ranges below the uncertainty caused by the surface albedo variability. The comparison with the independent lidar data allowed for investigation of the role of the crystal shape in the retrieval. It is found that if assuming aggregate ice crystals, the HSRL observations fit best with the retrieved optical thickness from HALO-SR.


2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (19) ◽  
pp. 5061-5079 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Lauer ◽  
V. Eyring ◽  
J. Hendricks ◽  
P. Jöckel ◽  
U. Lohmann

Abstract. International shipping contributes significantly to the fuel consumption of all transport related activities. Specific emissions of pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) per kg of fuel emitted are higher than for road transport or aviation. Besides gaseous pollutants, ships also emit various types of particulate matter. The aerosol impacts the Earth's radiation budget directly by scattering and absorbing the solar and thermal radiation and indirectly by changing cloud properties. Here we use ECHAM5/MESSy1-MADE, a global climate model with detailed aerosol and cloud microphysics to study the climate impacts of international shipping. The simulations show that emissions from ships significantly increase the cloud droplet number concentration of low marine water clouds by up to 5% to 30% depending on the ship emission inventory and the geographic region. Whereas the cloud liquid water content remains nearly unchanged in these simulations, effective radii of cloud droplets decrease, leading to cloud optical thickness increase of up to 5–10%. The sensitivity of the results is estimated by using three different emission inventories for present-day conditions. The sensitivity analysis reveals that shipping contributes to 2.3% to 3.6% of the total sulfate burden and 0.4% to 1.4% to the total black carbon burden in the year 2000 on the global mean. In addition to changes in aerosol chemical composition, shipping increases the aerosol number concentration, e.g. up to 25% in the size range of the accumulation mode (typically >0.1 μm) over the Atlantic. The total aerosol optical thickness over the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Northeastern Pacific increases by up to 8–10% depending on the emission inventory. Changes in aerosol optical thickness caused by shipping induced modification of aerosol particle number concentration and chemical composition lead to a change in the shortwave radiation budget at the top of the atmosphere (ToA) under clear-sky condition of about −0.014 W/m² to −0.038 W/m² for a global annual average. The corresponding all-sky direct aerosol forcing ranges between −0.011 W/m² and −0.013 W/m². The indirect aerosol effect of ships on climate is found to be far larger than previously estimated. An indirect radiative effect of −0.19 W/m² to −0.60 W/m² (a change in the atmospheric shortwave radiative flux at ToA) is calculated here, contributing 17% to 39% of the total indirect effect of anthropogenic aerosols. This contribution is high because ship emissions are released in regions with frequent low marine clouds in an otherwise clean environment. In addition, the potential impact of particulate matter on the radiation budget is larger over the dark ocean surface than over polluted regions over land.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 7961-7975 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Pandey ◽  
K. De Ridder ◽  
D. Gillotay ◽  
N. P. M. van Lipzig

Abstract. In this paper, we describe the implementation of the Semi-Analytical Cloud Retrieval Algorithm (SACURA), to obtain scaled cloud optical thickness (SCOT) from satellite imagery acquired with the SEVIRI instrument and surface UV irradiance levels. In estimation of SCOT particular care is given to the proper specification of the background (i.e. cloud-free) spectral albedo and the retrieval of the cloud water phase from reflectance ratios in SEVIRI's 0.6 μm and 1.6 μm spectral bands. The SACURA scheme is then applied to daytime SEVIRI imagery over Europe, for the month of June 2006, at 15-min time increments. The resulting SCOT fields are compared with values obtained by the CloudSat experimental satellite mission, yielding a negligible bias, correlation coefficients ranging from 0.51 to 0.78, and a root mean square difference of 1 to 2 SCOT increments. These findings compare favourably to results from similar intercomparison exercises reported in the literature. Based on the retrieved SCOT from SEVIRI and radiative transfer modelling approach, simple parameterisations are proposed to estimate the surface UV-A and UV-B irradiance. The validation of the modelled UV-A and UV-B irradiance against the measurements over two Belgian stations, Redu and Ostend, indicate good agreement with the high correlation, index of agreement and low bias. The SCOT fields estimated by implementing SACURA on imagery from geostationary satellite are reliable and its impact on surface UV irradiance levels is well produced.


2008 ◽  
Vol 130 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Caliot ◽  
G. Flamant ◽  
M. El Hafi ◽  
Y. Le Maoult

This paper deals with the comparison of spectral narrow band models based on the correlated-K (CK) approach in the specific area of remote sensing of plume signatures. The CK models chosen may or may not include the fictitious gas (FG) idea and the single-mixture-gas assumption (SMG). The accuracy of the CK and the CK-SMG as well as the CKFG and CKFG-SMG models are compared, and the influence of the SMG assumption is inferred. The errors induced by each model are compared in a sensitivity study involving the plume thickness and the atmospheric path length as parameters. This study is conducted in two remote-sensing situations with different absolute pressures at sea level (105Pa) and at high altitude (16.6km, 104Pa). The comparisons are done on the basis of the error obtained for the integrated intensity while leaving a line of sight that is computed in three common spectral bands: 2000–2500cm−1, 3450–3850cm−1, and 3850–4150cm−1. In most situations, the SMG assumption induces negligible differences. Furthermore, compared to the CKFG model, the CKFG-SMG model results in a reduction of the computational time by a factor of 2.


1988 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 1008-1016 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. G. Leckie ◽  
P. M. Teillet ◽  
G. Fedosejevs ◽  
D. P. Ostaff

Knowledge of the spectral characteristics of trees with varying degrees of needle loss is essential for developing remote sensing techniques for assessing defoliation. Spectra covering the range 400–2400 nm were acquired for single tree crowns suffering varying degrees of cumulative defoliation due to the spruce budworm (Choristoneurafumiferana (Clem.)), using a spectrometer mounted in the bucket of a boom truck. Spectra over the range 360–1100 nm were also obtained for the components of defoliated trees (i.e., needles, bare branches, and lichen), using a separate spectrometer and integrating sphere. Estimates of defoliation symptoms of each tree were made from the ground and above the tree. Changes in reflectance had a close and simple relationship with the defoliation symptoms measured. The spectral differences due to cumulative defoliation that were observed were broad-band features. The best spectral regions for differentiating levels of cumulative defoliation symptoms were the blue, red, shorter near-infrared wavelengths, and middle-infrared. Although currently available satellite and airborne sensors operate in these spectral regions, defoliation assessment may be improved by the use of optimized spectral bands.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Said Kharbouche ◽  
Jan-Peter Muller

The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) sensor onboard the Terra satellite provides high accuracy albedo products. MISR deploys nine cameras each at different view angles, which allow a near-simultaneous angular sampling of the surface anisotropy. This is particularly important to measure the near-instantaneous albedo of dynamic surface features such as clouds or sea ice. However, MISR’s cloud mask over snow or sea ice is not yet sufficiently robust because MISR’s spectral bands are only located in the visible and the near infrared. To overcome this obstacle, we performed data fusion using a specially processed MISR sea ice albedo product (that was generated at Langley Research Center using Rayleigh correction) combining this with a cloud mask of a sea ice mask product, MOD29, which is derived from the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), which is also, like MISR, onboard the Terra satellite. The accuracy of the MOD29 cloud mask has been assessed as >90% due to the fact that MODIS has a much larger number of spectral bands and covers a much wider range of the solar spectrum. Four daily sea ice products have been created, each with a different averaging time window (24 h, 7 days, 15 days, 31 days). For each time window, the number of samples, mean and standard deviation of MISR cloud-free sea ice albedo is calculated. These products are publicly available on a predefined polar stereographic grid at three spatial resolutions (1 km, 5 km, 25 km). The time span of the generated sea ice albedo covers the months between March and September of each year from 2000 to 2016 inclusive. In addition to data production, an evaluation of the accuracy of sea ice albedo was performed through a comparison with a dataset generated from a tower based albedometer from NOAA/ESRL/GMD/GRAD. This comparison confirms the high accuracy and stability of MISR’s sea ice albedo since its launch in February 2000. We also performed an evaluation of the day-of-year trend of sea ice albedo between 2000 and 2016, which confirm the reduction of sea ice shortwave albedo with an order of 0.4–1%, depending on the day of year and the length of observed time window.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chellappan Seethala ◽  
Jan Fokke Meirink ◽  
Ákos Horváth ◽  
Ralf Bennartz ◽  
Rob Roebeling

Abstract. Marine stratocumulus (Sc) clouds play an essential role in the earth radiation budget. Here, we compare liquid water path (LWP), optical thickness (COT), and effective radius (CER) retrievals from two years of collocated Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI), MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Microwave Imager (TMI) observations, estimate the effect of biomass burning smoke on passive imager retrievals, as well as evaluate the diurnal cycle of South Atlantic marine Sc clouds. The effect of absorbing aerosols from biomass burning on the retrievals was investigated using aerosol index (AI) obtained from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). SEVIRI and MODIS LWPs were found to decrease with increasing AI relative to TMI LWP, consistent with well-known negative visible/near-infrared retrieval biases in COT and CER. In the aerosol-affected months of July–August–September, SEVIRI LWP – based on the 1.6-µm CER – was biased low by 14 g m−2 (~ 16 %) compared to TMI in overcast scenes, while MODIS LWP showed a smaller low bias of 4 g m−2 (~ 5 %) for the 1.6-µm channel and a high bias of 8 g m−2 (~ 10 %) for the 3.7-µm channel compared to TMI. Neglecting aerosol-affected pixels reduced the mean SEVIRI-TMI LWP bias considerably. On a two-year data base, SEVIRI LWP had a correlation with TMI and MODIS LWP of about 0.86 and 0.94, respectively, and biases of only 4–8 g m−2 (5–10 %) for overcast cases. The SEVIRI LWP diurnal cycle was in good overall agreement with TMI except in the aerosol-affected months. Both TMI and SEVIRI LWP decreased from morning to late afternoon, after which a slight increase was observed. Terra and Aqua MODIS mean LWPs also suggested a similar diurnal variation. The relative amplitude of the two-year mean and seasonal mean LWP diurnal cycle varied between 35–40 % from morning to late afternoon for overcast cases. The diurnal variation in SEVIRI LWP was mainly due to changes in COT, while CER showed only little diurnal variability.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 611-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel M. Verstraete ◽  
Linda A. Hunt ◽  
Hugo De Lemos ◽  
Larry Di Girolamo

Abstract. The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) is one of the five instruments hosted on board the NASA Terra platform, launched on 18 December 1999. This instrument has been operational since 24 February 2000 and is still acquiring Earth observation data as of this writing. The primary mission of the MISR is to document the state and properties of the atmosphere, in particular the clouds and aerosols it contains, as well as the planetary surface, on the basis of 36 data channels collectively gathered by its nine cameras (pointing in different directions along the orbital track) in four spectral bands (blue, green, red and near-infrared). The radiometric camera-by-camera cloud mask (RCCM) is derived from the calibrated measurements at the nominal top of the atmosphere and is provided separately for each of the nine cameras. This RCCM data product is permanently archived at the NASA Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) in Hampton, VA, USA, and is openly accessible (Diner et al., 1999b, and https://doi.org/10.5067/Terra/MISR/MIRCCM_L2.004). For various technical reasons described in this paper, this RCCM product exhibits missing data, even though an estimate of the clear or cloudy status of the environment at each individual observed location can be deduced from the available measurements. The aims of this paper are (1) to describe how to replace over 99 % of the missing values by estimates and (2) to briefly describe the software to replace missing RCCM values, which is openly available to the community from the GitHub website, https://github.com/mmverstraete/MISR\\ RCCM/ (last access: 12 March 2020), or https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.3240017 (Verstraete, 2019e). Two additional sets of resources are also made available on the research data repository of GFZ Data Services in conjunction with this paper. The first set (A; Verstraete et al., 2020; https://doi.org/10.5880/fidgeo.2020.004) includes three items: (A1) a compressed archive, RCCM_Out.zip, containing all intermediary, final and ancillary outputs created while generating the figures of this paper; (A2) a user manual, RCCM_Out.pdf, describing how to install, uncompress and explore those files; and (A3) a separate input MISR data archive, RCCM_input_68050.zip, for Path 168, Orbit 68050. This latter archive is usable with (B), the second set (Verstraete and Vogt, 2020; https://doi.org/10.5880/fidgeo.2020.008), which includes (B1), a stand-alone, self-contained, executable version of the RCCM correction codes, RCCM_Soft_Win.zip, using the IDL Virtual Machine technology that does not require a paid IDL license, as well as (B2), a user manual, RCCM_Soft_Win.pdf, to explain how to install, uncompress and use this software.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 11991-12036 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Knobelspiesse ◽  
B. van Diedenhoven ◽  
A. Marshak ◽  
S. Dunagan ◽  
B. Holben ◽  
...  

Abstract. The primary goal of this project has been to investigate if ground-based visible and near-infrared passive radiometers that have polarization sensitivity can determine the thermodynamic phase of overlying clouds, i.e. if they are comprised of liquid droplets or ice particles. While this knowledge is important by itself for our understanding of the global climate, it can also help improve cloud property retrieval algorithms that use total (unpolarized) radiance to determine Cloud Optical Depth (COD). This is a potentially unexploited capability of some instruments in the NASA Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET), which, if practical, could expand the products of that global instrument network at minimal additional cost. We performed simulations that found, for zenith observations, cloud thermodynamic phase is often expressed in the sign of the Q component of the Stokes polarization vector. We chose our reference frame as the plane containing solar and observation vectors, so the sign of Q indicates the polarization direction, parallel (positive) or perpendicular (negative) to that plane. Since the quantity of polarization is inversely proportional to COD, optically thin clouds are most likely to create a signal greater than instrument noise. Besides COD and instrument accuracy, other important factors for the determination of cloud thermodynamic phase are the solar and observation geometry (scattering angles between 40 and 60° are best), and the properties of ice particles (pristine particles may have halos or other features that make them difficult to distinguish from water droplets at specific scattering angles, while extreme ice crystal aspect ratios polarize more than compact particles). We tested the conclusions of our simulations using data from polarimetrically sensitive versions of the Cimel 318 sun photometer/radiometer that comprise AERONET. Most algorithms that exploit Cimel polarized observations use the Degree of Linear Polarization (DoLP), not the individual Stokes vector elements (such as Q). For this reason, we had no information about the accuracy of Cimel observed Q and the potential for cloud phase determination. Indeed, comparisons to ceilometer observations with a single polarized spectral channel version of the Cimel at a site in the Netherlands showed little correlation. Comparisons to Lidar observations with a more recently developed, multi-wavelength polarized Cimel in Maryland, USA, show more promise. The lack of well characterized observations has prompted us to begin the development of a small test instrument called the Sky Polarization Radiometric Instrument for Test and Evaluation (SPRITE). This instrument is specifically devoted to the accurate observation of Q, and the testing of calibration and uncertainty assessment techniques, with the ultimate goal of understanding the practical feasibility of these measurements.


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