Detailed information on cloud properties is needed to vigorously test retrieval algorithms for satellite and ground-based remote sensors. The inherent complexity of clouds makes this information difficult to obtain from observations alone and cloud resolving models are often used to generating synthetic datasets that can be used as proxies for real data. We test the ability of a cloud resolving model to reproduce cloud structure in a case study of low-level clouds observed by the Earth Observing System (EOS) validation program in north central Oklahoma on March 3, 2000. A three-dimensional radiative transfer model is applied to synthetic cloud properties generated by a high-resolution three-dimensional cloud model in order to simulate the top of atmosphere radiances. These synthetic radiances are then compared with observations from the airborne Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (AirMISR), flown on the NASA ER-2 high-altitude aircraft.
Revised: March 14, 2007 |
Published: March 1, 2007