NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Temporal and Spatial Distribution of Liquid Water and Ice Clouds Observed by MODIS Onboard the Terra and Aqua SatellitesThe Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODE) was developed by NASA and launched onboard the Terra spacecraft on December 18,1999 and the Aqua spacecraft on April 26,2002. MODIS scans a swath width sufficient to provide nearly complete global coverage every two days from each polar-orbiting, sun-synchronous, platform at an altitude of 705 km, and provides images in 36 spectral bands between 0.415 and 14.235 pm with spatial resolutions of 250 m (2 bands), 500 m (5 bands) and 1000 m (29 bands). In this paper, we describe the radiative properties of clouds as currently determined from satellites (cloud fraction, optical thickness, cloud top pressure, and cloud effective radius), and highlight the global and regional cloud microphysical properties currently available for assessing climate variability and forcing. These include the latitudinal distribution of cloud optical and radiative properties of both liquid water and ice clouds, as well as joint histograms of cloud optical thickness and effective radius for selected geographical locations around the globe.
Document ID
20040171183
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
King, Michael D.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Platnick, S.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Gray, M. A.
(L-3 Communication Government Services, Inc. Vienna, VA, United States)
Hubanks, P. A.
(L-3 Communication Government Services, Inc. Vienna, VA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 22, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2004
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Meeting Information
Meeting: Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere, Ocean, Environment and Space
Location: Honolulu, HI
Country: United States
Start Date: November 8, 2004
End Date: November 11, 2004
Sponsors: International Society for Optical Engineering
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

Available Downloads

There are no available downloads for this record.
No Preview Available