Validation of ISCCP Cloud Detections

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Abstract
The International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) began in 1983 to collect and analyze weather satellite datasets to produce a new global cloud climatology as part of the World Climate Research Programme. The first step of the analysis is detection of the presence of clouds at each location and time by a series of tests on the space / time variations of infrared and visible radiances. This paper describes the validation of the ISCCP cloud detections by verifying the accuracy of the inferred clear-sky radiance. Comparison of retrieved surface temperatures to other measurements shows that bias errors are <2 K and random errors are about 2 K for sea surface (monthly means at 280-km scales) and that bias errors are <2 K and random errors are about 4 K for land surfaces (3 hourly at 280-km scale). Bias errors over a few persistently cloudy locations are sometimes −(2–4) K and over winter sea ice may be about +2 K. Surface reflectances are confirmed to be within 3% of other measurements and... Abstract The International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) began in 1983 to collect and analyze weather satellite datasets to produce a new global cloud climatology as part of the World Climate Research Programme. The first step of the analysis is detection of the presence of clouds at each location and time by a series of tests on the space / time variations of infrared and visible radiances. This paper describes the validation of the ISCCP cloud detections by verifying the accuracy of the inferred clear-sky radiance. Comparison of retrieved surface temperatures to other measurements shows that bias errors are <2 K and random errors are about 2 K for sea surface (monthly means at 280-km scales) and that bias errors are <2 K and random errors are about 4 K for land surfaces (3 hourly at 280-km scale). Bias errors over a few persistently cloudy locations are sometimes −(2–4) K and over winter sea ice may be about +2 K. Surface reflectances are confirmed to be within 3% of other measurements and...

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