Spatial and temporal characteristics of global cloud cover as observed from the Nimbus-7 satellite

The spatial and temporal characteristics of the total cloud amount (TCA) were determined on the bases of 2 yr of data collected by Nimbus-7. The instruments used were the 11.5 microns channel of the Temperature Humidity IR radiometer and the 0.38 micron channel of the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer. Comparisons were made between long-term averages and large variations during the El Nino/Southern Oscillation event of 1982/83. Separate attention was also given to the TCA for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and to TCA averages over specific large-scale global features such as deserts.