11th Conference on Atmospheric Radiation

6.5

Development of cirrus scattering models from polar, midlatitude, and tropical in-situ measurements

Bryan A. Baum, NASA/CIMSS, Madison, WI; and P. Yang, A. Heymsfield, S. Thomas, and S. L. Nasiri

We describe the development of new cirrus microphysical models developed from in-situ measurements of both particle size and habit distributions from midlatitude, tropical and polar ice cloud data. These cirrus microphysical models are in turn used to develop cirrus single scattering models for use with such satellite instruments as the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and MISR (Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer) instruments. The same approach is used to develop cirrus models for interferometers such as the Geostationary Interferometer Fourier Transform Spectrometer (GIFTS) and the Scanning High-resolution Interferometer Sounder (S-HIS). Both MODIS and MISR are on the NASA Terra platform, which is in a polar-orbiting, sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 705 km. MODIS has 36 spectral bands between 0.415 and 14.235 microns in four focal plane assemblies, with spatial resolutions of 250 m (2 bands), 500 m (5 bands) and 1000 m (29 bands). MISR records data at four visible wavelengths from a set of 9 along-track cameras. We will describe the similarities and differences found between the scattering models for tropical, midlatitude, and polar data at selected visible, near-infrared, and infrared wavelengths.

Session 6, Radiative Transfer in Difficult Clouds
Thursday, 6 June 2002, 10:30 AM-12:00 PM

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