View-angle consistency in reflectance, optical thickness and spherical albedo of marine water-clouds over the northeastern Pacific through MISR-MODIS fusion

Abstract

View-angle consistency in bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF), optical thickness and spherical albedo is examined for marine water clouds over a region of the northeastern Pacific using six years of fused Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) data. Consistency is quantified by the root-mean-square of relative differences between MISR-measured BRF and their plane-parallel values and variation of plane-parallel retrieved optical thickness and spherical albedo across multiple view-angles. Probability distribution functions of consistency show that, for example, these clouds are angularly consistent within 5% in BRF, optical thickness and spherical albedo 72.2%, 39.0% and 81.1% of the time, respectively. We relate angular consistency to the spatial variability of nadir-BRF, thus allowing us to potentially identify, with a prescribed confidence level, which MODIS microphysical retrievals within the MISR swath meet the plane-parallel assumption to within any desired range in view-angle consistency. Copyright 2009 by the American Geophysical Union.