Global Daily Water Cloud Optical Thickness Maps from GCOM-C Satellite

Daily global maps of water cloud optical thickness are derived from the SGLI sensor on the JAXA GCOM-C satellite. The product provides spatially averaged statistics at a 1/12-degree resolution, supporting long-term climate observations. JAXA produces this data to improve the accuracy of global warming predictions.

Use Cases

• Analyzing spatial patterns of cloud optical thickness from the AVE (average) field to study cloud-climate feedbacks.
• Using the QA_flag field to filter data quality for regional studies of cloud properties over oceans.
• Integrating the 1-day, 8-day, and 1-month statistical products to examine temporal variability in cloud optical thickness.
• Validating and calibrating atmospheric models by comparing simulated cloud optical thickness against the satellite-derived maps.

Strengths

• Global spatial coverage from a satellite with a 1150-1400 km swath.
• Data available at daily, 8-day, and monthly temporal resolutions for trend analysis.
• Product is at Version 3, indicating iterative processing improvements.

Limitations

• Specific row/record count and total file size are not provided.
• The underlying sample size per grid cell for the daily average statistic is unknown.
• Data is from a single sensor platform, limiting cross-validation with other instruments.

Provenance

Source

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Collection Method

Derived from Level 1B and Level 2 products from the SGLI sensor on the GCOM-C satellite, statistically processed into map-projected grids.

Time Range

From the satellite's launch in December 2017 to present.

Freshness

Daily product generation; satellite launched in December 2017, providing data from that period onward.

Geography

Global coverage.