Performance of the NOAA Enterprise AWG Cloud Height Algorithm in Multi-layer Scenes

Cloud heights from satellite infrared imagers are used in many applications ranging from real-time aviation support to long-term climate studies. The vertical distribution of cloud layers in the earth's atmosphere is complex and often multiple cloud layers are present in any one column. The NOAA Enterprise AWG Cloud Height Algorithm (ACHA) can both detect and account for the presence of multi-layer clouds. This poster will demonstrate the performance of ACHA for multi-layer clouds on the SNPP/VIIRS sensors. This work also explores the impact of using sounder data from the hyperspectral CrIS instrument and incorporation of nighttime lunar reflectances to improve the performance of cloud height estimation in the presence of multiple cloud layers.