Cloud effective emissivity retrievals using combined ground-based infrared cloud measuring instrument and ceilometer observations

Abstract

In this paper, a new inversion procedure for cloud effective emissivity retrievals using a combined ground-based infrared cloud measuring instrument with ceilometer was developed. A quantitative sensitivity and performance analysis of the proposed method was also provided. It was found that the uncertainty of the derived effective emissivity was mainly associated with errors on the measurement radiance, the simulated radiance of clear sky and blackbody cloudy sky. Furthermore, the retrieval at low effective emissivity was most sensitive to the simulated clear sky radiances, whereas the blackbody cloudy sky radiance was the prevailing source of uncertainty at high emissivity. This newly proposed procedure was applied to the measurement taken in the CMA Beijing Observatory Station from November 2011 to June 2012 by the whole-sky infrared cloud-measuring system (WSIRCMS) and CYY-2B ceilometer. The cloud effective emissivity measurements were in good agreement with that of the MODIS/AQUA MYD06 Collection 6 (C6) cloud products. The mean difference between them was 0.03, with a linear correlation coefficient of 0.71. The results demonstrate that the retrieval method is robust and reliable.