| Title | The Cloud Top Distribution and Diurnal Variation of Clouds Over East Asia: Preliminary Results From Advanced Himawari Imager |
| Authors | Chen, Dandan Guo, Jianping Wang, Hongqing Li, Jian Min, Min Zhao, Wenhui Yao, Dan |
| Affiliation | Peking Univ, Sch Phys, Dept Atmospher & Ocean Sci, Beijing, Peoples R China. Chinese Acad Meteorol Sci, State Key Lab Severe Weather, Beijing, Peoples R China. China Meteorol Adm, Natl Satellite Meteorol Ctr, Key Lab Radiometr Calibrat & Validat Environm Sat, Beijing, Peoples R China. Peking Univ, Sch Phys, Dept Atmospher & Ocean Sci, Beijing, Peoples R China. Guo, JP (reprint author), Chinese Acad Meteorol Sci, State Key Lab Severe Weather, Beijing, Peoples R China. |
| Keywords | clouds diurnal cycle three-dimensional structure East Asia Himawari AEROSOL-INDUCED VARIABILITY GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE 3-DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURE AIR-POLLUTION WATER-VAPOR CHINA PRECIPITATION CLIMATOLOGY MISSION SEASON |
| Issue Date | 2018 |
| Publisher | JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES |
| Citation | JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES. 2018, 123(7), 3724-3739. |
| Abstract | Clouds, as one of the most uncertain factors in climate system, have been intensively studied as satellites with advanced instruments emerged in recent years. However, few studies examine the vertical distributions of cloud top and their temporal variations over East Asia based on geostationary satellite data. In this study, the vertical structures of cloud top and its diurnal variations in summer of 2016 are analyzed using the Advanced Himawari Imager/Himawari-8 cloud products. Results show that clouds occur most frequently over the southern Tibetan Plateau and the Bay of Bengal. We find a steep gradient of cloud occurrence frequency extending from southwest to northeast China and low-value centers over the eastern Pacific and the Inner Mongolia Plateau. The vertical structures of cloud top are highly dependent on latitude, in addition to the nonnegligible roles of both terrain and land-sea thermal contrast. In terms of the diurnal cycle, clouds tend to occur more often in the afternoon, peaking around 1700 local time over land and ocean. The amplitude of cloud diurnal variation over ocean is much smaller than that over land, and complex terrain tends to be linked to larger amplitude. In vertical, the diurnal cycle of cloud frequency exhibits bimodal pattern over both land and ocean. The high-level peaks occur at almost the same altitude over land and ocean. In contrast, the low-level peaks over ocean mainly reside in the boundary layer, much lower than those over land, which could be indicative of the frequent occurrence of marine boundary layer clouds. |
| URI | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11897/524291 |
| ISSN | 2169-897X |
| DOI | 10.1002/2017JD028044 |
| Indexed | SCI(E) |
| Appears in Collections: | 物理学院 |
