FAME-C: Retrieval of cloud top pressure with vertically inhomogeneous cloud profiles Free

A synergistic FAME-C (Freie Universität Berlin AATSR-MERIS Cloud Retrieval) algorithm is developed within the frame of the ESA CCI Cloud project. Within FAME-C the ratio of two MERIS measurements (the Oxygen-A absorption channel and a window channel) is used to retrieve cloud top pressure. In case of high, extended clouds the retrieved cloud top pressure is generally too high. This can be understood as an overestimation of extinction in upper cloud layers due to the assumption of vertical homogeneous clouds in the radiative transfer simulations. To include more realistic cloud vertical profiles, one year of data from the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) onboard CloudSat has been used to determine average normalized cloud vertical extinction profiles with a fixed pressure thickness for nine cloud types. The nine cloud types are based on the ISCCP COT-CTP classification table. The retrieved cloud top pressure, now using CloudSat cloud profiles in the forward model, is compared to CPR reflectivities as well as the retrieved cloud top pressure using vertically homogeneous cloud profiles. In the first number of cases under examination the overestimation of cloud top pressure, and therefore the bias, is reduced by a large amount when using CloudSat vertical cloud profiles. Another advantage is that no assumption about the cloud geometrical thickness has to be made in the new retrieval. It should be noted that comparisons between FAME-C products and A-train products can only be made at high latitudes where A-train and ENVISAT have overlapping overflights.