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Cloud heights measured by MISR from 2000 to 2015
Author(s) -
Davies Roger,
Jovanovic Veljko M.,
Moroney Catherine M.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-8996
pISSN - 2169-897X
DOI - 10.1002/2017jd026456
Subject(s) - climatology , teleconnection , spectroradiometer , equator , environmental science , amplitude , extratropical cyclone , latitude , series (stratigraphy) , satellite , meteorology , atmospheric sciences , geology , geography , geodesy , reflectivity , physics , paleontology , el niño southern oscillation , quantum mechanics , astronomy , optics
Davies and Molloy (2012) reported a decrease in the global effective cloud height over the first 10 years of Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) measurements on the Terra satellite. We have reexamined their time series for possible artefacts that might especially affect the initial portion of the record when the heights appeared anomalously high. While variations in sampling were shown to be inconsequential, an artefact due to the change in equator crossing time that affected the first 2 years was discovered, and this has now been corrected. That correction, together with the extension of the time series by five more years, yields no significant overall trend in global heights during the first 15 years of Terra operation. The time series is dominated by large interannual fluctuations associated with La Niña events that mask any overall trend on a global scale. On a regional basis, the cloud heights showed significant interannual variations of much larger amplitude, sometimes with fairly direct cancellation between regions. There were unexplained differences between the two hemispheres in the timing of height anomalies. These differences persisted over a large range of extratropical latitudes, suggestive of teleconnections. Within the tropics, there were very strong changes associated with the Central Pacific and Indonesian Maritime Continent regions that oscillated out of phase with each other, with interannual amplitudes that exceeded 1 km.