Identification of clear and cloudy pixels at high latitudes from AVHRR radiances

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Abstract
A technique to distinguish between clear and cloudy regions at high latitudes in the summer by satellite measured radiances is described. The method uses multi-spectral AVHRR data to first ascertain the surface types that are present within scenes consisting of 34 by 34 GAC pixels (∼ 150 km by 150km) and then, depending on which surface types are present, a set of thresholds of varying complexity to detect cloudy pixels. Results of the automatic analyses are compared with manual analyses and a published analysis that employs a different approach. For the most part agreement among the different analyses is good but regions in which there is disagreement are identified and discussed.