Premium
Objective identification of cloud regimes in the Tropical Western Pacific
Author(s) -
Jakob Christian,
Tselioudis George
Publication year - 2003
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 - 10.1029/2003gl018367
Subject(s) - cirrus , cloud computing , representativeness heuristic , identification (biology) , environmental science , international satellite cloud climatology project , meteorology , climatology , cloud physics , atmospheric sciences , computer science , geography , geology , cloud cover , statistics , mathematics , botany , biology , operating system
Identifying cloud regimes and their role in the climate system can serve a multitude of purposes, ranging from a better understanding of clouds to guiding field experiments to improving the representation of clouds in models. This study describes early results in identifying cloud regimes from ISCCP data using cluster analysis. A simple algorithm for cloud regime identification is introduced and applied to data in the Tropical Western Pacific region. Four major cloud regimes, namely a shallow cumulus regime, a transparent isolated cirrus regime, thick cirrus with convection and a deep and probably organized convective regime are identified and their frequency of occurrence is quantified. The use of the regime information for various applications is discussed and the use of regime classifications for representativeness studies is presented using the ARM TWP sites as an example.