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  1. Home
  2. Essential Climate Variables
  3. Clouds

Download shortened print version of ECV factsheet (pdf) here.


Data Sources

ECV Products and Requirements


Clouds

The variable properties of clouds determines the clouds profound effects on radiation and precipitation. They are influenced by and in turn influence the motion of the atmosphere on many scales. They are affected by the presence of aerosols, and modify atmospheric composition in several ways, including the depletion of ozone when they form in the polar stratosphere.
  Domain: Atmosphere
  Subdomain: Atmospheric Composition
  Scientific Area: Hydrosphere
  ECV Steward: Rainer Hollmann
  ECV Product: Cloud Amount; Cloud Top Pressure; Cloud Top Temperature; Cloud Optical Depth; Cloud Water Path (liquid/ice); Cloud Effective Particle Radius (liquid + ice)

 


Global Cloud Cover

Figure: Climatological mean total cloud fraction averaged over 26-year period (1984–2009) from Climate Monitoring Satellite Application Facility (CM SAF) Cloud, Albedo (CLARA-A2). The CM SAF project is a part of the ground segment of the European organization for the exploitation of meteorological satellites (EUMETSAT).

Source: Karlsson, K.-G.; Devasthale, A. Inter-Comparison and Evaluation of the Four Longest Satellite-Derived Cloud Climate Data Records: CLARA-A2, ESA Cloud CCI V3, ISCCP-HGM, and PATMOS-x. Remote Sens. 2018, 10, 1567.


 

 

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