Using CALIOP to estimate cloud-field base height and its uncertainty: the Cloud Base Altitude Spatial Extrapolator (CBASE) algorithm and dataset

DOI

Attenuated backscatter profiles from the CALIOP satellite lidar are used to estimate cloud base heights of lower-troposphere liquid clouds (cloud base height below approximately 3 km). Even when clouds are thick enough to attenuate the lidar beam (optical thickness > 5), the technique provides cloud base heights by treating the cloud base height of nearby thinner clouds as representative of the surrounding cloud field. Using ground-based ceilometer data, uncertainty estimates for the cloud base height product at retrieval resolution are derived as a function of various properties of the CALIOP lidar profiles. Evaluation of the predicted cloud base heights and their predicted uncertainty using a second, statistically independent, ceilometer dataset shows that cloud base heights and uncertainties are biased by less than 10%. CBASE provides two files for each CALIOP VFM input file: one using a 40 km window to detect the cloud field base height, and one using a 100 km window. (The input CALIOP VFM dataset is organized by the daytime/nighttime half of each orbit.) The file name pattern is CBASE_T.nc (identical to the input CALIOP VFM file name with the exception of the product name). Files are organized into subdirectories by half-orbit start date.

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.1594/WDCC/CBASE
Metadata Access https://dmoai.cloud.dkrz.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=iso19115&identifier=oai:wdcc.dkrz.de:iso_3590248
Provenance
Creator Johannes Mülmenstädt; Odran Sourdeval; David S. Henderson; Tristan S. L’Ecuyer; Claudia Unglaub; Leonore Jungandreas; Christoph Böhm; Lynn M. Russell; Prof. Dr. Johannes Quaas
Publisher World Data Center for Climate (WDCC)
Publication Year 2018
Rights CC BY 4.0: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
OpenAccess true
Contact not filled; https://meteo.physgeo.uni-leipzig.de
Representation
Language English
Resource Type collection ; collection
Format tar-File(s)
Size 203 MB
Version 1
Discipline Earth System Research
Spatial Coverage (-180.000W, -90.000S, 180.000E, 90.000N)
Temporal Coverage Begin 2007-01-01T00:00:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 2008-12-31T00:00:00Z