著者

Alessandro Damiani Hitoshi Irie Tamio Takamura Rei Kudo Pradeep Khatri Hironobu Iwabuchi Ryosuke Masuda Takashi Nagao

出版者

Meteorological Society of Japan

雑誌

SOLA (ISSN:13496476)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.15, pp.198-204, 2019 (Released:2019-09-27)

参考文献数

39

被引用文献数

4

---

We used observations recorded at Chiba University in November 2018 to examine the variability in cloud optical depth (COD) under overcast conditions. First, we conducted a careful evaluation of four COD datasets retrieved from three types of surface observations: i) zenith radiance recorded by two sky radiometers; ii) solar radiation data collected by a pyranometer; and iii) spatial distribution of radiance recorded using a sky camera system. Although the COD retrieved from the pyranometer (camera) slightly (moderately) overestimated the COD from zenith radiance, we found a satisfactory correlation among all surface estimates. This result suggests the efficacy of both pyranometer- and camera-based approaches and supports their broader use when dedicated cloud observations are not available. We then assessed satellite-based COD estimates retrieved from the recently launched Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) aboard Himawari-8 (H-8) and Second-generation Global Imager (SGLI) on the Global Change Observation Mission for Climate (GCOM-C). Overall, we found good agreement between ground and satellite estimates; their correlation and root mean square error were virtually equivalent to values reported for co-located surface-based instruments. Nevertheless, the AHI-based COD was found to be slightly positively biased with respect to surface datasets.