Hi
We made a small investigation in to the '
Cloud Fraction', as measured by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer,
http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/) instruments, the first launched on 18th December 1999 onboard the Terra Platform satellite and the second on 4th May 2002 onboard the Aqua platform satellite ,
at ILRS sites.
The data is made available to download, see here
http://modis-atmos.gsfc.nasa.gov/MOD06_L2/index.html. And here
http://modis-atmos.gsfc.nasa.gov/MOD08_M3/index.html The attached plots are grouped in geographical regions, showing 'Cloud Fraction' as recorded at SLR site locations. We used the 1x1 degree grids and interpolated to the SLR latitude/longitude coordinates to get 'Cloud Fraction' values for each month from 2013. A value of 1.0 means complete cloud cover over that month and 0.0 indicates clear skies. An average value for each SLR station is also included in the legend.
These plots do not take account for station height, which may overcome any SLR cloud problems.
More plots in second post...
Matt
Topic: Monthly 'Cloud Fraction' over ILRS SLR locations (Read 9792 times)