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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Keywords

  • global warming
  • climate change
  • general circulation model

Index Terms

  • Atmospheric Processes: Clouds and aerosols
  • Atmospheric Processes: Mesoscale meteorology
  • Atmospheric Processes: Precipitation
  • Atmospheric Processes: Radiative processes
  • Atmospheric Processes: Remote sensing

Abstract

Adaptation of a model-generated cloud database to satellite observations

Eun-Kyoung Seo

Department of Meteorology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA

School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

Guosheng Liu

Department of Meteorology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA

Wei-Kuo Tao

Laboratory for Atmospheres, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA

Sang-Ok Han

Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA

Cloud resolving model outputs are often used to build databases for satellite microwave remote sensing of precipitating clouds. A known problem of this approach is that cloud resolving models tend to systematically produce excessive amount of high density frozen hydrometeors, causing the cloud/radiation model database to have stronger scattering signatures at high microwave frequencies than those observed by satellite or airborne sensors. Consequently, it lowers the performance of the cloud and precipitation retrieval algorithms that utilize the model database. Since multi-frequency satellite observations contain information on hydrometeors' properties, measured brightness temperatures can give guidance as to how the modeled cloud database may be modified to better mimic natural clouds. Following this philosophy, in this study, we propose a method to adapt the modeled database toward observations. The newly constructed database results in a better match to the characteristics of the satellite observed brightness temperatures.

Received 16 August 2006; accepted 13 December 2006; published 3 February 2007.

Citation: Seo, E.-K., G. Liu, W.-K. Tao, and S.-O. Han (2007), Adaptation of a model-generated cloud database to satellite observations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L03805, doi:10.1029/2006GL027857.

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