Cloud Properties of the Daytime Earth as Observed by DSCOVR-EPIC

The Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) onboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) has been providing full disc observations of the sunlit side of the Earth since June 2015. EPIC images are captured on a 2Kx2K CCD array that couple with a filter-wheel, enables consecutive observations in 10 spectral channels ranging from the UV to the near-IR. EPIC cloud products include cloud masking, cloud height, and cloud optical thickness. The EPIC cloud mask algorithm utilizes reflectance and channel ratio based tests in the UV, VIS, and NIR, while cloud height is inferred from Oxygen A- and B-band observations and cloud optical thickness retrieved using a single channel (680 nm over land and 780nm over ocean) technique. Over two years of data have been collected. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of the NASA EPIC cloud algorithms, and present the cloud properties and its temporal and spatial variability of the daytime Earth.