Global Cloud Optical Properties from PACE HARP2 Polarimetric Retrievals

CLOUD_GPC suite provides cloud properties derived from the GISS Polarimetric Cloud algorithm applied to PACE HARP2 Level-3 data. It includes core variables like cloud_bow_droplet_effective_radius and cloud_liquid_index, along with experimental diagnostic variables for future refinement. The data is produced by the OB_CLOUD organization.

Use Cases

• Analyzing global distributions of cloud droplet size using the cloud_bow_droplet_effective_radius column.
• Investigating cloud phase and liquid water presence via the cloud_liquid_index feature.
• Assessing retrieval uncertainty and quality for droplet properties using the cloud_bow_rms and cloud_bow_fit_correlation fields.
• Characterizing bimodal droplet size distributions using the cloud_rft_mode_fraction_0 and cloud_rft_mode_fraction_1 variables.

Strengths

• Includes novel polarimetric retrievals of cloud droplet effective radius and variance on a global scale.
• Provides diagnostic metrics like fit correlation and RMS error to assess retrieval quality for core variables.

Limitations

• Contains experimental variables intended for diagnostics that may change in future versions.
• Specific spatial/temporal resolution, row count, and geographic bias are unknown from the description.

Provenance

Source

NASA Earthdata, PACE HARP2 Level-3 data processed with the GISS Polarimetric Cloud (GPC) algorithm.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing retrievals from polarimetric measurements.

Time Range

null

Freshness

null

Geography

Global mapped coverage.