Identifier doi:10.5676/DWD/ESA_Cloud_cci/MODIS-Aqua/V002 identifierType DOI

Title
ESA Cloud_cci cloud property datasets retrieved from passive satellite sensors: MODIS-Aqua L3C/L3U cloud products - Version 2.0

Description

The Cloud_cci MODIS-Aqua dataset was generated within the Cloud_cci project (http://www.esa-cloud-cci.org) which was funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of the ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI) programme (Contract No.: 4000109870/13/I-NB). This dataset is one of the 6 datasets generated in Cloud_cci; all of them being based on passive-imager satellite measurements. This dataset is based on MODIS (onboard Aqua) measurements and contains a variety of cloud properties which were derived employing the Community Cloud retrieval for Climate (CC4CL; Sus et al., 2017; McGarragh et al., 2017) retrieval framework. The core cloud properties contained in the Cloud_cci MODIS-Aqua dataset are cloud mask/fraction, cloud phase, cloud top pressure/height/temperature, cloud optical thickness, cloud effective radius and cloud liquid/ice water path. Spectral cloud albedo is also included as experimental product. The cloud properties are available at different processing levels: Level-3U (globally gridded, unaveraged data fields) and Level-3C (monthly averages and histograms). Pixel-based uncertainty estimates come along with all properties and are also propagated into Level-3C data. More details on the dataset can be found in Stengel et al. (2017) and in project documentation as listed below. Some examples are shown in Figure 1.

a)		b)		c)
d)		e)		f)
Figure 1 Top row: Examples of the Cloud_cci MODIS-Aqua dataset, i.e. globally sampled, un-averaged retrieval data (Level-3U) for 2008/06/21: (a) Cloud top pressure, (b) Cloud effective radius, (c) Cloud type. Bottom row: Examples of the Cloud_cci MODIS-Aqua dataset, i.e. monthly averaged data (Level-3C) for 2008/06: (d) Cloud top pressure, (e) Cloud effective radius, (f) Cloud fraction.

Creators
Stengel, Martin¹; Sus, Oliver¹; Stapelberg, Stefan¹; Schlundt, Cornelia¹; Poulsen, Caroline²; Hollmann, Rainer^1
1Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD)
²Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL)

Citation

Stengel, Martin; Sus, Oliver; Stapelberg, Stefan; Schlundt, Cornelia; Poulsen, Caroline; Hollmann, Rainer (2017): ESA Cloud Climate Change Initiative (ESA Cloud_cci) data: Cloud_cci MODIS-Aqua L3C/L3U CLD_PRODUCTS v2.0, Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), DOI:10.5676/DWD/ESA_Cloud_cci/MODIS-Aqua/V002