Advancing Maritime Transparent Cirrus Detection Using the Advanced Baseline Imager “Cirrus” Band
Abstract
We describe a quantitative evaluation of maritime transparent cirrus cloud detection, which is based on Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 16 (GOES-16) and developed with collocated Cloud–Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) profiling. The detection algorithm is developed using one month of collocated GOES-16 Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) channel-4 (1.378 μm) radiance and CALIOP 0.532-μm column-integrated cloud optical depth (COD). First, the relationships between the clear-sky 1.378-μm radiance, viewing/solar geometry, and precipitable water vapor (PWV) are characterized. Using machine-learning techniques, it is shown that the total atmospheric pathlength, proxied by airmass factor (AMF), is a suitable replacement for viewing zenith and solar zenith angles alone, and that PWV is not a significant problem over ocean. Detection thresholds are computed using the channel-4 radiance as a function of AMF. The algorithm detects nearly 50% of subvisual cirrus (COD < 0.03), 80% of transparent cirrus (0.03 < COD < 0.3), and 90% of opaque cirrus (COD > 0.3). Using a conservative radiance threshold results in 84% of cloudy pixels being correctly identified and 4% of clear-sky pixels being misidentified as cirrus. A semiquantitative COD retrieval is developed for GOES ABI based on the observed relationship between CALIOP COD and 1.378-μm radiance. This study lays the groundwork for a more complex, operational GOES transparent cirrus detection algorithm. Future expansion includes an overland algorithm, a more robust COD retrieval that is suitable for assimilation purposes, and downstream GOES products such as cirrus cloud microphysical property retrieval based on ABI infrared channels.
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