Publication Abstracts

Liao et al. 1995

Liao, X., W.B. Rossow, and D. Rind, 1995: Comparison between SAGE II and ISCCP high-level clouds: 1. Global and zonal mean cloud amounts. J. Geophys. Res., 100, 1121-1135, doi:10.1029/94JD02429.

Global high-level clouds identified in Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE II) occultation measurements for January and July in the period 1985 to 1990 are compared with near-nadir-looking observations from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP). Global and zonal mean high-level cloud amounts from the two data sets agree very well, if clouds with layer extinction coefficients of < 0.008 /km at 1.02 µm wavelength are removed from the SAGE II results and all detected clouds are interpreted to have an average horizontal size of about 75 km along the 200 km transmission path length of the SAGE II observations. The SAGE II results are much more sensitive to variations of assumed cloud size than to variations of detection threshold. The geographical distribution of cloud fractions shows good agreement, but systematic regional differences also indicate that the average cloud size varies somewhat among different climate regimes. The more sensitive SAGE II results show that about one third of all high-level clouds are missed by ISCCP but that these clouds have very low optical thicknesses (< 0.1 at 0.6 µm wavelength). SAGE II sampling error in monthly zonal cloud fraction is shown to produce no bias, to be less than the intraseasonal natural variability, but to be comparable with the natural variability at longer time scales.

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BibTeX Citation

@article{li03100m,
  author={Liao, X. and Rossow, W. B. and Rind, D.},
  title={Comparison between SAGE II and ISCCP high-level clouds: 1. Global and zonal mean cloud amounts},
  year={1995},
  journal={J. Geophys. Res.},
  volume={100},
  pages={1121--1135},
  doi={10.1029/94JD02429},
}

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RIS Citation

TY  - JOUR
ID  - li03100m
AU  - Liao, X.
AU  - Rossow, W. B.
AU  - Rind, D.
PY  - 1995
TI  - Comparison between SAGE II and ISCCP high-level clouds: 1. Global and zonal mean cloud amounts
JA  - J. Geophys. Res.
VL  - 100
SP  - 1121
EP  - 1135
DO  - 10.1029/94JD02429
ER  -

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