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This paper investigates the important difference in the relationship between brightness temperatures between the 11-μm and the 12-μn AVHRR data and the microphysical properties of the semitransparent cirrus clouds. In the nonscattering approximation, the emittance for channels 4 and 5 are related through the absorption coefficient ratio that is the key parameter giving access to the size of cloud particles. The observed mean value of this parameter corresponds to effective radius of 18 μm for polydisperse spheres and 12 μm for polydisperse infinitely long ice cylinders. Taking the multiple scattering into account, the brightness temperature difference enhances much more for cylinders than for spheres owing to the fact that the forward peak of scattering is less large for cylinders. To obtain the size of cloud particles, the method developed in the nonscattering case is still applicable if one makes use of the effective emittance that implicitly includes the effects of mattering. Thus, an effective absorption coefficient ratio is defined and we derive a direct relationship between this ratio and the optical properties of the cloud particles. The mean value of the effective absorption coefficient ratio corresponds to ice spheres of effective radius of 26 μm or a bit less in the case of water spheres (supercooled droplets), but no agreement can be obtained for fully randomly oriented cylinders.

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Abstract. Polarization and Directionality of the Earth's Reflectances (POLDER) is a new instrument devoted to the global observation of the polarization and directionality of solar radiation reflected by the Earth-atmosphere system. It will fly onboard the ADEOS platform in 1996. This paper outlines the improvements expected from POLDER in the description of atmospheric aerosols and water vapor over land, and of surface bidirectional reflectances. It then gives a detailed description of the operational algorithms which are implemented in the "land surface and atmosphere over land" processing line. This line is part of an effort initiated by Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (the French Space Agency) to develop lines of products in order to facilitate the exploration of POLDER's new capabilities by the international science community. Emphasis is given in this paper to the presentation of the principles, physical rationale, and elements of validation of the algorithms of this processing line. The main products are (1) for each orbit segment, the amount and type of aerosols, the water vapor content, and bidirectional reflectances corrected for atmospheric effects, and (2) every 10 days, global maps of surface directional signatures, of hemispherical surface reflectances, and of parameters describing the statistical distribution of aerosol and water vapor content. These products will be made available to all interested investigators. The most innovative algorithms of the processing line are (1) cloud detection, based on a series of tests involving reflectance thresholds, oxygen pressure estimates, and analysis of polarized radiance in the rainbow direction, (2) retrieval of aerosol optical thickness and type from directional polarized radiance measurements, and (3) retrieval of surface directional signature through an adjustment of a time series of directional reflectance measurements with a semiempirical bidirectional reflectance model. IntroductionBefore the end of the century, a series of Earth-orbiting satellites will carry several advanced, well-calibrated instruments designed to provide global observations of the Earth's oceans, land, and atmosphere.