Implementation of the Daytime Cloud Optical and Microphysical Properties Algorithm (DCOMP) in PATMOS-x

Abstract

his paper describes the daytime cloud optical and microphysical properties (DCOMP) retrieval for the Pathfinder Atmosphere?s Extended (PATMOS-x) climate dataset. Within PATMOS-x, DCOMP is applied to observations from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer and employs the standard bispectral approach to estimate cloud optical depth and particle size. The retrievals are performed within the optimal estimation framework. Atmospheric-correction and forward-model parameters, such as surface albedo and gaseous absorber amounts, are obtained from numerical weather prediction reanalysis data and other climate datasets. DCOMP is set up to run on sensors with similar channel settings and has been successfully exercised on most current meteorological imagers. This quality makes DCOMP particularly valuable for climate research. Comparisons with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) collection-5 dataset are used to estimate the performance of DCOMP.