Radiances and Cloud Analyses
from
GOES Dwell Soundings
A Prototype Product Set
A central issue for Mission to Planet Earth is the treatment in Global Climate Models (GCM) of the relationships among cloudiness, radiation, and water vapor. However, coordinated data sets which effectively constrain the choices open to GCM modelers in all three areas of uncertainty have been largely lacking. In principle radiance measurements from satellites provide, on the space and time scales that are relevant to a GCM, simultaneous information regarding water vapor, cloudiness, and their effects on the outgoing radiation at the top of the atmosphere. Such data products should also provide context dependent measures of uncertainty for all the major variables.
We offer a prototype sample of products covering a period of seven days in
May 1988, in a combination of HTML and HDF-EOS formats, based upon the archive
of data from the Visible/Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer (VISSR) Atmospheric
Sounder (VAS) aboard the U.S. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites
(GOES). These include observed radiances from all the VAS channels that were
reported, the estimated radiances that a satellite would have seen under
clear sky conditions, and an analysis of cloud top pressure and effective
cloud fraction for high, middle, and low clouds. They cover the continental
United States and adjacent ocean on a spatial resolution of one degree of
latitude and longitude, approximately every 90 minutes. They are offered
to the scientific community for evaluation. Submitted user comments will
be incorporated into the science evaluation
page below.
DATA IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE ONLINE - PLEASE CONTACT Denise Laitsch
| Our Products and their Uses |
View or Download
Data to your System |
| User Guide | View User Guide |
| Science Objectives | View GIF Images |
| Glossary of Terms | Select Granules to Download |
| Product Description | FORTRAN Radiation Code |
| Science Themes | Project Components |
| Observed Radiances | Product Set |
| Cloud Mask | Product Description |
| Clear Sky Radiances | Metadata Directory |
| Cloud Analysis | Collection Metadata |
| Atmospheric Profiles | Granule Directory |
| Cloud Forcing | Granule Description for sample granule |
| Cloud Top Pressures and Cloud Fraction | Browse GIF Images for sample granule |
| Dense Cirrus | Inventory of VAS Archive |
| Surface Energy Balance | Calibration |
| Quality Assurance Reports |
Science Evaluations
The information in this document was prepared under NASA contract number
NAS13-7192 and may be used without restriction.
Attribution should be to:
"Radiances and Cloud Analysis from GOES Dwell Soundings", F. P. Bretherton
and D. P. Wylie, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin
- Madison, May 1998
Space Science and Engineering Center
Last modified August 2, 1998
Comments to gvp@ssec.wisc.edu