Variation in Nimbus-7 Cloud Estimates. Part I: Zonal Averages

Abstract

Zonal averages of low, middle and total cloud amount estimates derived from measurements from Nimbus-7 have been analyzed for the six-year period April 1979 through March 1985. The globally and zonally averaged values of six-year annual means and standard deviations of total cloud amount and a proxy of cloud-top height are illustrated. Separate means for day and night and land and sea are also shown. The globally averaged value of intra-annual variability of total cloud amount is greater than 7%, and that for cloud height is greater than 0.3 km. Those of interannual variability are more than one-third of these values. Important latitudinal differences in variability are illustrated. The dominant empirical orthogonal analyses of the intra-annual variations of total cloud amount and heights show strong annual cycles, indicating that in the tropics increases in total cloud amount of up to about 30% are often accompanied by increases in cloud height of up to 1.2 km. This positive link is also evident in the dominant empirical orthogonal function of interannual variations of a total cloud/cloud height complex. This function shows a large coherent variation in total cloud cover of about 10% coupled with changes in cloud height of about 1.1 km associated with the 1982?83 El Niño?Southern Oscillation event.