Discriminating dust and clouds using AVHRR data

Current techniques used to construct aerosol and cloud climatologies have difficulties in discriminating aerosols and clouds. This drawback limits the credibility when these climatologies are used, especially when they are used for study of aerosol-cloud interactions. Based on model calculations and satellite data analysis, this study describes a technique to discriminating dust from clouds over ocean areas using AVHRR data. The results show that this technique is most successful when relatively thick dust storms are presented.