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First extended validation of satellite microwave liquid water path with ship‐based observations of marine low clouds
Author(s) -
Painemal David,
Greenwald Thomas,
Cadeddu Maria,
Minnis Patrick
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2016gl069061
Subject(s) - liquid water path , environmental science , satellite , overcast , remote sensing , microwave radiometer , radiometer , water vapor , meteorology , microwave , geostationary operational environmental satellite , geology , physics , quantum mechanics , astronomy , sky
We present the first extended validation of satellite microwave (MW) liquid water path (LWP) for low nonprecipitating clouds, from four operational sensors, against ship‐borne observations from a three‐channel MW radiometer collected along ship transects over the northeast Pacific during May–August 2013. Satellite MW retrievals have an overall correlation of 0.84 with ship observations and a bias of 9.3 g/m 2 . The bias for broken cloud scenes increases linearly with water vapor path and remains below 17.7 g/m 2 . In contrast, satellite MW LWP is unbiased in overcast scenes with correlations up to 0.91, demonstrating that the retrievals are accurate and reliable under these conditions. Satellite MW retrievals produce a diurnal cycle amplitude consistent with ship‐based observations (33 g/m 2 ). Observations taken aboard extended ship cruises to evaluate not only satellite MW LWP but also LWP derived from visible/infrared sensors offer a new way to validate this important property over vast oceanic regions.