Cloud fraction & cloud pressure

Air pollution
monitoring

NO₂
      - global
      - central Europe
CH₂O
      - global
CO
      - global

UV radiation

UV
      - UV index
      - UV dose

Ozone and
related gases

Ozone
      - total column
      - global field
      - ozone bulletin
      - ozone profiles
BrO
      - global field

Climate change

Aerosol
      - AOD
      - aerosol index
Methane
      - global
Clouds
      - cloud info

Monitoring volcanic
emissions

Volcanic plume
- SO₂ & AAI

Contact

page last modified:
31 January 2012

For the retrieval of tropospheric trace gas columns it is essential to have information on the cloud cover conditions. Both the cloud fraction and the cloud pressure are needed as input for the trace gas retrieval algorithms. The (effective) cloud fraction and cloud pressure are derived from GOME and SCIAMACHY measurements with the FRESCO cloud algorithm.The OMI cloud information is derived with the OMCLDO2 algorithm.

Latest results for SCIAMACHY and GOME-2

SCIAMACHY:	GOME-2:

Archives

SCIAMACHY cloud information (FRESCO (version SC-v6, level 1 v.7.03/7.04))

Cloud information (SC-v6) :	menu \| 2002 \| 2003 \| 2004 \| 2005 \| 2006 \| 2007 \| 2008 \| 2009 \| 2010 \| 2011 \| 2012

Older datafiles (version SC-v5): Monthly images & data (SC-v5):	2002 \| 2003 \| 2004 \| 2005 \| 2006 \| 2007 \| 2008 \| 2009 \| 2010 \| 2011 2002-2010

GOME-2 cloud information (FRESCO (version G2-v6, level 1 v.4))

Cloud information (G2-v6) :	menu \| 2007 \| 2008 \| 2009 \| 2010 \| 2011 \| 2012

Older datafiles (G2-v5):	2007 \| 2008 \| 2009 \| 2010 \| 2011

GOME cloud information (FRESCO (version GO-v6, level 1 v.4.0x))

Datafiles (GO-v6):	1996 \| 1997 \| 1998 \| 1999 \| 2000 \| 2001 \| 2002 \| 2003 \| 2004 2005 \| 2006 \| 2007 \| 2008 \| 2009 \| 2010 \| 2011

Older datafiles (GO-v5):	1996 \| 1997 \| 1998 \| 1999 \| 2000 \| 2001 \| 2002 \| 2003 \| 2004 2005 \| 2006 \| 2007 \| 2008 \| 2009

OMI cloud information (OMCLDO2)

Datafiles (collection 3):	all years
Cloud Fraction images:	2007 \| 2008 \| 2009 \| 2010 \| 2011 \| 2012	Warning for OMI data users

Citation

When the data is used in scientific publications, please refer to the following publication:

For FRESCO (GOME,SCIAMACHY,GOME-2) data:
P. Wang, P. Stammes, R. van der A, G. Pinardi, M. van Roozendael (2008), FRESCO+: an improved O2 A-band cloud retrieval algorithm for tropospheric trace gas retrievals, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 8, 6565-6576

For OMI data:
Acarreta, J.R., J.F. de Haan and P. Stammes, Cloud pressure retrieval using the O2-O2 absorption band at 477 nm, J. Geophys. Res., 2004, 109, doi:10.1029/2003JD003915.

Acknowledgement

The FRESCO data products of GOME-2 were generated using level 1 data developed within the O3MSAF project of the EUMETSAT.

Documentation

Black-sky albedo climatology based on MERIS

Lambert-equivalent reflectivities based on GOME

Scientific papers

Koelemeijer, R. B. A., P. Stammes, J. W. Hovenier, and J. F. de Haan, "A fast method for retrieval of cloud parameters using oxygen A band measurements from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment", J. Geophys. Res. 106, 3475-3490, 2001. (PDF)
Koelemeijer, R. B. A., P. Stammes, J. W. Hovenier, and J. F. de Haan, "Global distributions of effective cloud fraction and cloud top pressure derived from oxygen A band spectra measured by the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment: comparison to ISCCP data," J. Geophys. Res. 107, doi 10.1029/2001JD000840, 2002. (PDF)
N. Fournier, P. Stammes, J.R. Acarreta, H. Eskes, A. Piters,M. Hess, A. von Bargen, A. Kokhanovsky, and M. Grzegorski,"SCIAMACHY cloud product validation", In: Envisat Validation Workshop Proceedings (ACVE-2), ESA Special Publication SP-562, May 3-7, 2004, Frascati, Italy. (PDF)
N. Fournier, P. Stammes, M. de Graaf, R. van der A, A. Piters, M. Grzegorski, A. Kokhanovsky, Improving cloud information over deserts from SCIAMACHY Oxygen A-band measurements, ACP, p163-172, SRef-ID: 1680-7324/acp/2006-6-163
P. Wang, P. Stammes, N. Fournier, Test and first validation of FRESCO+, Proceedings of SPIE volume 6362, Remote Sensing 2006, 11-16 Sep. 2006, Stockholm, Sweden (PDF)
P. Wang, P. Stammes, R. van der A, G. Pinardi, M. van Roozendael (2008), FRESCO+: an improved O2 A-band cloud retrieval algorithm for tropospheric trace gas retrievals, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 8, 6565-6576 (html-link)
Wang, P., Stammes, P., and Mueller, R., Surface solar irradiance from SCIAMACHY measurements: algorithm and validation, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 4, 875-891, doi:10.5194/amt-4-875-2011, 2011. (html-link)