Publications

Platnick, S, Fontenla, JM (2008). Model calculations of solar spectral irradiance in the 3.7-mu m band for earth remote sensing applications. JOURNAL OF APPLIED METEOROLOGY AND CLIMATOLOGY, 47(1), 124-134.

Abstract
Since the launch of the first Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) instrument aboard the Television and Infrared Observational Satellite (TIROS-N), measurements in the 3.7-mu m atmospheric window have been exploited for use in cloud detection and screening, cloud thermodynamic phase and surface snow/ice discrimination, and quantitative cloud particle size retrievals. The utility of the band has led to the incorporation of similar channels on a number of existing satellite imagers and future operational imagers. Daytime observations in the band include both reflected solar and thermal emission energy. Since 3.7-mu m channels are calibrated to a radiance scale (via onboard blackbodies), knowledge of the top-of-atmosphere solar irradiance in the spectral region is required to infer reflectance. Despite the ubiquity of 3.7-mu m channels, absolute solar spectral irradiance data come from either a single measurement campaign (Thekaekara et al.) or synthetic spectra. In the current study, the historical 3.7-mu m band spectral irradiance datasets are compared with the recent semiempirical solar model of the quiet sun by Fontenla et al. The model has expected uncertainties of about 2% in the 3.7-mu m spectral region. The channel-averaged spectral irradiances using the observations reported by Thekaekara et al. are found to be 3.2%-4.1% greater than those derived from the Fontenla et al. model for Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and AVHRR instrument bandpasses; the Kurucz spectrum, as included in the Moderate Spectral Resolution Atmospheric Transmittance (MODTRAN4) distribution, gives channel-averaged irradiances 1.2%-1.5% smaller than the Fontenla model. For the MODIS instrument, these solar irradiance uncertainties result in cloud microphysical retrieval uncertainties that are comparable to other fundamental reflectance error sources.

DOI:
10.1175/2007JAMC1571.1

ISSN:
1558-8424