FY3A Satellite Ten-Day Mean Cloud Physical Properties

Ten-day mean cloud top temperature, cloud top height, and cloud optical thickness products derived from the FY-3A satellite. The dataset is produced by SCIOPS for studying the role of clouds in Earth's radiation balance and climate change research. Temporal coverage and specific data volume are not provided.

Use Cases

• Analyzing correlations between cloud top temperature and cloud optical thickness to study cloud microphysics.
• Modeling regional climate patterns using ten-day mean cloud top height as an input variable.
• Validating global climate model outputs against observed satellite-derived cloud optical thickness.
• Investigating trends in cloud properties over time for climate change attribution studies.

Strengths

• Provides three key cloud physical parameters essential for radiation balance studies.
• Data aggregation to ten-day means reduces noise for climate-scale analysis.

Limitations

• Sample size, temporal range, and spatial resolution are unknown.
• Relies on single satellite sensor (FY-3A VIRR), limiting cross-validation opportunities.

Provenance

Source

NASA Earthdata (platform), data produced by SCIOPS.

Collection Method

Retrieved from the FY-3A satellite Visible and Infrared Radiometer (VIRR).

Time Range

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Freshness

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Geography

Global coverage from satellite observations.