ATOVS Aerosol, Cloud and Radiation Products
The ATOVS system has been enhanced with new product algorithms for generating Cloud and Radiation type parameter suites. Like the sounding products, the Cloud and Radiation products are global, for both METOP-A and NOAA-19 and generated routinely in near-real time.
Each day, a statistical summary is generated for:
General Product Display Features:
- GRAY is used to display areas covered by satellite measurements but where a particular product was NOT retrieved as is indicated on the scale below each product.
- BLACK is used to display areas which were NOT covered by satellite measurements.
- All of these products are retrieved at the HIRS/4 Field-of- View (FOV) or footprint. There are roughly 600,000 HIRS/4 FOVs per day per satellite.
The Effective Cloud Amount (%) represents the retrieved physical cloud and contains all atmospheric constituents (water vapor clouds and aerosols). This physical quantity is simply an intermediate variable representing the ratio of radiance difference fields and is used as input for Cloud Clearing of the HIRS/4 channels. Exceptions to this calculation are for very thin, warm cloud features at low altitudes where a different algorithm had to be employed.
