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Light Scattering Reviews 2 pp 97–124Cite as

Retrieval of cloud optical thickness and effective radius using multispectral remote sensing and accounting for 3D effects

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Abstract

Understanding spatial and temporal variations in cloud properties is crucial to determine the radiation balance on Earth. Remote sensing from satellites provides valuable information on cloud physical properties at global scales (e.g., Rossow and Schiffer, 1991). Recent Earth-observing sensors, such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Global Imager (GLI), have well-designed spectral channels and horizontal resolutions between 250m and 1000 m. Compared to earlier sensors, these sensors allow improved derivations of atmospheric and land surface properties. Operational products include the cloud optical thickness and effective particle radius, which are very useful for studying aerosols’ indirect effects (Radke et al., 1989; Rosenfeld, 2000).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Frontier Research Center for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 3173-25 Showa-machi Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 236-0001, Japan

    Hironobu Iwabuchi

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  1. Hironobu Iwabuchi
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Alexander A. Kokhanovsky

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© 2007 Praxis Publishing Ltd, Chichester, UK

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Iwabuchi, H. (2007). Retrieval of cloud optical thickness and effective radius using multispectral remote sensing and accounting for 3D effects. In: Kokhanovsky, A.A. (eds) Light Scattering Reviews 2. Springer Praxis Books. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68435-0_3

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