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• Minnis, P
• Hong, G
• Ayers, J
• Smith, W
• Yost, C
• Heymsfield, A
• Heymsfield, G
• Hlavka, D
• King, M
• Korn, E
• McGill, M
• Selkirk, H
• Thompson, A
• Tian, L
• Yang, P
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• Minnis, P
• Hong, G
• Ayers, J
• Smith, W
• Yost, C
• Heymsfield, A
• Heymsfield, G
• Hlavka, D
• King, M
• Korn, E
• McGill, M
• Selkirk, H
• Thompson, A
• Tian, L
• Yang, P
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• Minnis, P
• Hong, G
• Ayers, J
• Smith, W
• Yost, C
• Heymsfield, A
• Heymsfield, G
• Hlavka, D
• King, M
• Korn, E
• McGill, M
• Selkirk, H
• Thompson, A
• Tian, L
• Yang, P

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Remote Sens. 2012, 4(10), 3022-3054; doi:10.3390/rs4103022

Article

Simulations of Infrared Radiances over a Deep Convective Cloud System Observed during TC⁴: Potential for Enhancing Nocturnal Ice Cloud Retrievals

Patrick Minnis ^1,* , Gang Hong ² , J. Kirk Ayers ² , William L. Smith Jr. ¹ , Christopher R. Yost ² , Andrew J. Heymsfield ³ , Gerald M. Heymsfield ⁴ , Dennis L. Hlavka ⁵ , Michael D. King ⁶ , Errol Korn ³ , Matthew J. McGill ⁴ , Henry B. Selkirk ⁷ , Anne M. Thompson ⁸ , Lin Tian ^9,  and Ping Yang ¹⁰

¹ NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23681, USA ² Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Hampton, VA 23666, USA ³ Earth System Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 80301, USA ⁴ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA ⁵ Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Lanham, MD 20706, USA ⁶ LASP, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA ⁷ Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, MD 21044, USA ⁸ Department of Meteorology, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA 16802, USA ⁹ GESTAR, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD 21251, USA ¹⁰ Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 20 August 2012; in revised form: 29 September 2012 / Accepted: 6 October 2012 / Published: 11 October 2012

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermal Remote Sensing Applications: Present Status and Future Possibilities)

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Abstract: Retrievals of ice cloud properties using infrared measurements at 3.7, 6.7, 7.3, 8.5, 10.8, and 12.0 mm can provide consistent results regardless of solar illumination, but are limited to cloud optical thicknesses t < ~6. This paper investigates the variations in radiances at these wavelengths over a deep convective cloud system for their potential to extend retrievals of t and ice particle size D_e to optically thick clouds. Measurements from an imager, an interferometer, the Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL), and the Cloud Radar System (CRS) aboard the NASA ER-2 aircraft during the NASA TC⁴ (Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling) experiment flight during 5 August 2007, are used to examine the retrieval potential of infrared radiances over optically thick ice clouds. Simulations based on coincident in situ measurements and combined cloud t from CRS and CPL measurements are comparable to the observations. They reveal that brightness temperatures at these bands and their differences (BTD) are sensitive to t up to ~20 and that for ice clouds having t > 20, the 3.7–10.8 µm and 3.7–6.7 µm BTDs are the most sensitive to D_e. Satellite imagery appears to be consistent with these results suggesting that t and D_e could be retrieved for greater optical thicknesses than previously assumed. But, because of sensitivity of the BTDs to uncertainties in the atmospheric profiles of temperature, humidity, and ice water content, and sensor noise, exploiting the small BTD signals in retrieval algorithms will be very challenging.

Keywords: clouds; optical depth; particle size; satellite; TC⁴; multispectral thermal infrared

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