Roebeling, RA, Feijt, AJ, Stammes, P (2006). Cloud property retrievals for climate monitoring: Implications of differences between Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) on METEOSAT-8 and Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on NOAA-17. JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES, 111(D20), D20210.

Abstract
In the framework of the Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM-SAF) an algorithm was developed to retrieve Cloud Physical Properties (CPP) from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) on board the Meteosat Second Generation (METEOSAT-8) and the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on board the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites. This paper presents the CPP algorithm and determines if SEVIRI can be used together with AVHRR to build a consistent and accurate data set of cloud optical thickness (COT) and cloud liquid water path (CLWP) over Europe for climate research purposes. After quantifying the differences in 0.6 and 1.6 mu m operational calibrated reflectances of SEVIRI and AVHRR, a recalibration procedure is proposed to normalize and absolutely calibrate these reflectances. The effects of recalibration, spatial resolution, and viewing geometry differences on the SEVIRI and AVHRR cloud property retrievals are evaluated. The intercomparison of 0.6 and 1.6 mu m operationally calibrated reflectances indicates similar to 6 and similar to 26% higher reflectances for SEVIRI than for AVHRR. These discrepancies result in retrieval differences between AVHRR and SEVIRI of similar to 8% for COT and similar to 60% for CLWP. Owing to recalibration these differences reduce to similar to 5%, while the magnitude of the median COT and CLWP values of AVHRR decrease similar to 2 and similar to 60% and the SEVIRI values increase similar to 10 and similar to 55%, respectively. The differences in spatial resolution and viewing geometry slightly influence the retrieval precision. Thus the CPP algorithm can be used to build a consistent and high-quality data set of SEVIRI and AVHRR retrieved cloud properties for climate research purposes, provided the instrument reflectances are recalibrated, preferably guided by the satellite operators.

DOI:
10.1029/2005JD006990

ISSN:
0148-0227