Cloud detection performance of spaceborne visible-to-infrared multispectral imagers

Nakajima, Takashi Y.; Tsuchiya, Toshio; Ishida, Hideyuki; Matsui, Takashi; Shimoda, Haruhisa

doi:10.1364/ao.50.002601

Cited by 40 publications

(22 citation statements)

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“…As shown in Table 1, SGLI has 19 channels, including two polarisation channels at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. A detailed description of the SGLI is reported by Imaoka et al (2010), Nakajima et al (2011), and Letu et al (2012). Four of the ice particle habits (hexagonal columns, plates, bullet rosettes, and droxtals) employed in this study were chosen by referring to the MODIS Collection 5 ice particle model and ice cloud in situ measurement data.…”

Section: Single-scattering Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of ice particle habits to be used for ice cloud remote sensing for the GCOM-C satellite mission

et al. 2016

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Abstract. In this study, various ice particle habits are investigated in conjunction with inferring the optical properties of ice clouds for use in the Global Change Observation Mission-Climate (GCOM-C) satellite programme. We develop a database of the single-scattering properties of five ice habit models: plates, columns, droxtals, bullet rosettes, and Voronoi. The database is based on the specification of the Second Generation Global Imager (SGLI) sensor on board the GCOM-C satellite, which is scheduled to be launched in 2017 by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. A combination of the finite-difference time-domain method, the geometric optics integral equation technique, and the geometric optics method is applied to compute the single-scattering properties of the selected ice particle habits at 36 wavelengths, from the visible to the infrared spectral regions. This covers the SGLI channels for the size parameter, which is defined as a single-particle radius of an equivalent volume sphere, ranging between 6 and 9000 µm. The database includes the extinction efficiency, absorption efficiency, average geometrical cross section, single-scattering albedo, asymmetry factor, size parameter of a volume-equivalent sphere, maximum distance from the centre of mass, particle volume, and six nonzero elements of the scattering phase matrix. The characteristics of calculated extinction efficiency, single-scattering albedo, and asymmetry factor of the five ice particle habits are compared. Furthermore, sizeintegrated bulk scattering properties for the five ice particle habit models are calculated from the single-scattering database and microphysical data. Using the five ice particle habit models, the optical thickness and spherical albedo of ice clouds are retrieved from the Polarization and Directionality of the Earth's Reflectances-3 (POLDER-3) measurements, recorded on board the Polarization and Anisotropy of Reflectances for Atmospheric Sciences coupled with Observations from a Lidar (PARASOL) satellite. The optimal ice particle habit for retrieving the SGLI ice cloud properties is investigated by adopting the spherical albedo difference (SAD) method. It is found that the SAD is distributed stably due to the scattering angle increases for bullet rosettes with an effective diameter (D eff ) of 10 µm and Voronoi particles with D eff values of 10, 60, and 100 µm. It is confirmed that the SAD of small bullet-rosette particles and all sizes of Voronoi particles has a low angular dependence, indicating that a combination of the bullet-rosette and Voronoi models is sufficient for retrieval of the ice cloud's spherical albedo and optical thickness as effective habit models for the SGLI Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 12288H. Letu et al.: Investigation of ice particle habits to be used for ice cloud remote sensing sensor. Finally, SAD analysis based on the Voronoi habit model with moderate particle size (D eff = 60 µm) is compared with the conventional general habit mixture mode...

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Section: Single-scattering Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of ice particle habits to be used for ice cloud remote sensing for the GCOM-C satellite mission

et al. 2016

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“…Single band reflectance tests: Single band reflectance tests for discriminating clouds from clear-sky areas have been well studied (Ackerman et al, 1998;Hutchison et al, 2005;Frey et al, 2008;He, 2011;Nakajima et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2012). In the non-absorption visible and near-infrared bands, the reflectance of clouds typically shows a higher value than that of clear-sky surfaces.…”

Section: Threshold Tests For Capimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, the threshold of 1.38 μm refers to the value employed in MOD35. The thresholds of the remaining tests are taken directly from the CLAUDIA algorithm, considering the similar spectral bands between CAPI and TANSO-CAI (Nakajima et al, 2011).…”

Section: Threshold Tests For Capimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ishida and Nakajima (2009) proposed an unbiased concept to composite the results of each single threshold test for MODIS. The Cloud and Aerosol Unbiased Decision Intellectual Algorithm (CLAU-DIA) defines the final cloud mask by the outcomes of two groups that employ different methods to calculate the CCL (Nakajima et al, 2011). A daytime cloud detection algorithm has been developed for the Visible and Infrared Radiometer (VIRR) onboard the Chinese FengYun-3A satellite (FY-3A), which shows good performance over the oceans by adding the test of the reflectance difference between the 1.38 and 1.6 μm bands (He, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The CCL provides a reasonable technique to evaluate the contamination of clouds for each pixel. Based on the concept of the CCL, the clear-conservative, cloud-conservative, and unbiased schemes (Nakajima et al, 2011) could be determined by:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A cloud detection scheme for the Chinese Carbon Dioxide Observation Satellite (TANSAT)

et al. 2016

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Cloud detection is an essential preprocessing step for retrieving carbon dioxide from satellite observations of reflected sunlight. During the pre-launch study of the Chinese Carbon Dioxide Observation Satellite (TANSAT), a cloud-screening scheme was presented for the Cloud and Aerosol Polarization Imager (CAPI), which only performs measurements in five channels located in the visible to near-infrared regions of the spectrum. The scheme for CAPI, based on previous cloudscreening algorithms, defines a method to regroup individual threshold tests for each pixel in a scene according to the derived clear confidence level. This scheme is proven to be more effective for sensors with few channels. The work relies upon the radiance data from the Visible and Infrared Radiometer (VIRR) onboard the Chinese FengYun-3A Polar-orbiting Meteorological Satellite (FY-3A), which uses four wavebands similar to that of CAPI and can serve as a proxy for its measurements. The scheme has been applied to a number of the VIRR scenes over four target areas (desert, snow, ocean, forest) for all seasons. To assess the screening results, comparisons against the cloud-screening product from MODIS are made. The evaluation suggests that the proposed scheme inherits the advantages of schemes described in previous publications and shows improved cloud-screening results. A seasonal analysis reveals that this scheme provides better performance during warmer seasons, except for observations over oceans, where results are much better in colder seasons.

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A Universal Dynamic Threshold Cloud Detection Algorithm (UDTCDA) supported by a prior surface reflectance database

et al. 2016

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Conventional cloud detection methods are easily affected by mixed pixels, complex surface structures, and atmospheric factors, resulting in poor cloud detection results. To minimize these problems, a new Universal Dynamic Threshold Cloud Detection Algorithm (UDTCDA) supported by a priori surface reflectance database is proposed in this paper. A monthly surface reflectance database is constructed using long-time-sequenced MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer surface reflectance product (MOD09A1) to provide the surface reflectance of the underlying surfaces. The relationships between the apparent reflectance changes and the surface reflectance are simulated under different observation and atmospheric conditions with the 6S (Second Simulation of the Satellite Signal in the Solar Spectrum) model, and the dynamic threshold cloud detection models are developed. Two typical remote sensing data with important application significance and different sensor parameters, MODIS and Landsat 8, are selected for cloud detection experiments. The results were validated against the visual interpretation of clouds and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation cloud measurements. The results showed that the UDTCDA can obtain a high precision in cloud detection, correctly identifying cloudy pixels and clear-sky pixels at rates greater than 80% with error rate and missing rate of less than 20%. The UDTCDA cloud product overall shows less estimation uncertainty than the current MODIS cloud mask products. Moreover, the UDTCDA can effectively reduce the effects of atmospheric factors and mixed pixels and can be applied to different satellite sensors to realize long-term, large-scale cloud detection operations.

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Cloud detection performance of spaceborne visible-to-infrared multispectral imagers

Cited by 40 publications

References 8 publications

Investigation of ice particle habits to be used for ice cloud remote sensing for the GCOM-C satellite mission

Investigation of ice particle habits to be used for ice cloud remote sensing for the GCOM-C satellite mission

A cloud detection scheme for the Chinese Carbon Dioxide Observation Satellite (TANSAT)

A Universal Dynamic Threshold Cloud Detection Algorithm (UDTCDA) supported by a prior surface reflectance database

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