Tropical cloud regimes from MODIS

The tropics contain a vast number of land surfaces, ocean currents, and atmospheric systems that dictate the characteristic cloud regimes. This gives rise to the need for analysis not of the tropical cloud field as a whole, but rather individual cloud regimes. MODIS level-3 data provides a high spatial and nearly daily coverage of the entire tropical region, giving us the ability to assess the micro- and macro-physical properties associated with varying cloud types on multiple spatiotemporal scales. We will analyze the state of the cloud field in the tropics, discussing some of the considerations in processing and analyzing the data at multiple spatiotemporal scales. Our primary objective is to gain insight into the physical explanations for the variability on interannual and seasonal scales within observed cloud property distributions. Our focus will be on aggregated joint property histograms and correlation and anomaly plots of cloud fields segregated by cloud height, optical thickness, and phase.