ASDC | ISCCP_D2

ISCCP Level 3

Entry Title: International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) Stage D2 Monthly Cloud Products - Revised Algorithm in Hierarchical Data Format

Entry ID: ISCCP_D2_1

Clouds Radiation Budget

Description

The ISCCP_D2 data set contains monthly, 280 KM equal-area grid data from various polar and geostationary satellites. Climatological Summary Product contents contain monthly average of D1 quantities including mean diurnal cycle, distribution and properties of total cloudiness and cloud types.

The International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP), the first project of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), was established in 1982 (WMO-35 1982, Schiffer and Rossow 1983):

- To produce a global, reduced resolution, calibrated and normalized radiance data set containing basic information on the properties of the atmosphere from which cloud parameters can be derived.

- To stimulate and coordinate basic research on techniques for inferring the physical properties of clouds from the condensed radiance data set and to apply the resulting algorithms to derive and validate a global cloud climatology for improving the parameterization of clouds in climate models.

- To promote research using ISCCP data that contributes to improved understanding of the Earth's radiation budget and hydrological cycle.

Since 1983 an international group of institutions has collected and analyzed satellite radiance measurements from up to five geostationary and two polar orbiting satellites to infer the global distribution of cloud properties and their diurnal, seasonal and interannual variations. The primary focus of the first phase of the project (1983-1995) was the elucidation of the role of clouds in the radiation budget (top of the atmosphere and surface). In the second phase of the project (1995 onwards) the analysis also concerns improving understanding of clouds in the global hydrological cycle.

The ISCCP analysis combines satellite-measured radiances (Stage B3 data, Schiffer and Rossow 1985), Rossow et al. 1987) with the TOVS atmospheric temperature-humidity and ice/snow correlative data sets to obtain information about clouds and the surface. The analysis method first determines the presence of absence of clouds in each individual image pixel and retrieves the radiometric properties of the cloud for each cloudy pixel and of the surface for each clear pixel. The pixel analysis is performed separately for each satellite radiance data set and the results reported in the Stage DX data product, which has a nominal resolution of 30 km and 3 hours. The Stage D1 product is produced by summarizing the pixel-level results every 3 hours on an equal-area map with 280 km resolution and merging the results from separate satellites with the atmospheric and ice/snow data sets to produce global coverage at each time. The Stage D2 data product is produced by averaging the Stage D1 data over each month, first at each of the eight three hour time intervals and then over all time intervals.

DOI

10.5067/ISCCP/D2

View Citations

VIEW RELATED INFORMATION

ALGORITHM DOCUMENTATION

ISCCP New Algorithm: Summary of Changes

ANOMALIES

ISCCP Known and Fixed Errors in Data Products

DATA CITATION POLICY

How to cite ASDC data

GENERAL DOCUMENTATION

HOW-TO

Program to read an entire TV file by looping over the 72 latitude bands at a time - Direct File Download (.f)

MICRO ARTICLE

PI DOCUMENTATION

EOS Aura Science Team Meeting AGENDA, August 27 - August 29, 2019 Pasadena CA, USA

PRODUCTION HISTORY

ISCCP Data Products List

PUBLICATIONS

Publications for ISCCP

READ-ME

ISCCP D2 Data Set Readme

SCIENCE DATA PRODUCT SOFTWARE DOCUMENTATION

Readme to read ISCCP D2 HDF Formatted Data Files - Direct File Download (.c)

From GCMD Science Keywords:

CLOUD TOP PRESSURE > CLOUD PROPERTIES
TRACE GASES/TRACE SPECIES
TOTAL PRECIPITABLE WATER > WATER VAPOR INDICATORS
CLOUD TOP TEMPERATURE > CLOUD PROPERTIES
SURFACE PRESSURE
AIR TEMPERATURE > SURFACE TEMPERATURE
CLOUD VERTICAL DISTRIBUTION > CLOUD PROPERTIES
OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESS
REFLECTANCE
ATMOSPHERIC OZONE > OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
CLOUD TYPES
SURFACE TEMPERATURE
CLOUD FREQUENCY > CLOUD PROPERTIES
SNOW COVER
CLOUD HEIGHT > CLOUD PROPERTIES
ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE MEASUREMENTS
CLOUD PRECIPITABLE WATER > CLOUD MICROPHYSICS
CLOUD OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESS > CLOUD MICROPHYSICS

Cloud Process Studies
GISS (Goddard Institute for Space Studies)
Grid Data
Hourly Data
ISCCP Cloud Analysis Products
Precipitable Water
Radiance
Surface Reflectance

Data Distribution

File Format(s):

HDF4

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Spatial Information

Spatial Coverage: (-90, 90), (-180, 180)
Spatial Coverage Type: Not provided
Coordinate System: Cartesian
Granule Spatial Representation: Cartesian

Locations

GLOBAL BOUNDARY LAYER TROPOSPHERE

Temporal Information

Temporal Coverage: 1983-07-01 - 2009-12-31
Temporal Resolution: Monthly

Platforms

Earth Observation Satellites

Geostationary Meteorological Satellite-5

National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-18

AVHRR

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

Radiometer

INSAT

Indian National Satellite

VHRR

Very High Resolution Radiometer

Radiometer

MTSAT-1R

Multi-functional Transport Satellite 1 Replacement

JAMI

Japanese Advanced Meteorological Imager

Imager

SEVIRI

Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager

Imager

SEVIRI

Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager

Imager

MVIRI

Meteosat Visible Infra-Red Imager

Imager

Instruments not applicable.

Metadata Dates

Created on 1999-05-07

Last updated on 2022-10-25

ISCCP Level 3

Entry Title: International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) Stage D2 Monthly Cloud Products - Revised Algorithm in Hierarchical Data Format

Entry ID: ISCCP_D2_1

Clouds Radiation Budget

DOI

Resources and Documentation

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Keywords

From GCMD Science Keywords:

Data Distribution

File Format(s):

Spatial Information

Locations

Temporal Information

Platforms

Earth Observation Satellites

Geostationary Meteorological Satellite-5

VISSR

Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer

VISSR

Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer

VISSR

Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer

VISSR

Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer

VISSR

Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 12

GOES I-M IMAGER

VISSR

Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer

GOES I-M IMAGER

VISSR

Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer

GOES I-M IMAGER

VISSR

Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer

GOES I-M IMAGER

VISSR

Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer

GOES I-M IMAGER

VISSR

Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer

GOES I-M IMAGER

VISSR

Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer

GOES I-M IMAGER

VISSR

Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer

GOES I-M IMAGER

VISSR

Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer

National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-18

AVHRR

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AVHRR

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AVHRR

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AVHRR

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AVHRR

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AVHRR

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AVHRR

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AVHRR

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AVHRR

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AVHRR

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AVHRR

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

Indian National Satellite

VHRR

Very High Resolution Radiometer