Open AccessComplementary use of passive and active remote sensing for detection of penetrating convection from CloudSat, CALIPSO, and Aqua MODIS
Author(s) -
Young Alisa H.,
Bates John J.,
Curry Judith A.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2011jd016749
Subject(s) - brightness temperature , environmental science , remote sensing , multispectral image , brightness , geology , meteorology , geography , physics , optics
The study examines penetrating deep convection (PDC), that reach ∼14 km (PDC14) and ∼17 km (PDC17), using 1 year of colocated CloudSat, CALIPSO, and Aqua‐MODIS observations. The combination of multisensory and multispectral observations is used to examine how well PDC14(17) are captured using cold cloud features (CCFs), defined as groupings of 1 km MODIS pixels with ∼11 μ m brightness temperature (BT) less than or equal to 210 K and 235 K and positive brightness temperature differences (+BTD) between ∼6.7 μ m (BT 6.7 ) and ∼11 μ m (BT 11 ). Cross‐comparison of PDC14 with CCFs ≤ 210 K and +BTD signatures according to date, time, and geolocation show that within the tropics 61% (55%) of CCFs ≤ 210 K (+BTD) occur as PDC14. In the case of CCFs ≤ 210 K, ∼27% of the PDC14 distribution also occur as cold altostratus/anvil clouds. Results show that 50–59% of PDC14 are large enough to be detected from IR observations with a horizontal resolution of 5 km. Although observations are sampled along CloudSat's narrow swath where CloudSat/CALIPSO and Aqua MODIS observations are colocated, the study provides statistical evidence supporting the use of IR observations to study the long‐term temporal and spatial variability of high reaching deep convective cloud activity.