Improving Satellite-Retrieved Cloud Base Height with Ground-Based Cloud Radar Measurements

Abstract

Cloud base height (CBH) is a crucial parameter for cloud radiative effect estimates, climate change simulations, and aviation guidance. However, due to the limited information on cloud vertical structures included in passive satellite radiometer observations, few operational satellite CBH products are currently available. This study presents a new method for retrieving CBH from satellite radiometers. The method first uses the combined measurements of satellite radiometers and ground-based cloud radars to develop a lookup table (LUT) of effective cloud water content (ECWC), representing the vertically varying cloud water content. This LUT allows for the conversion of cloud water path to cloud geometric thickness (CGT), enabling the estimation of CBH as the difference between cloud top height and CGT. Detailed comparative analysis of CBH estimates from the state-of-the-art ECWC LUT are conducted against four ground-based millimeter-wave cloud radar (MMCR) measurements, and results show that the mean bias (correlation coefficient) is 0.18±1.79 km (0.73), which is lower (higher) than 0.23±2.11 km (0.67) as derived from the combined measurements of satellite radiometers and satellite radar-lidar (i.e., CloudSat and CALIPSO). Furthermore, the percentages of the CBH biases within 250 m increase by 5% to 10%, which varies by location. This indicates that the CBH estimates from our algorithm are more consistent with ground-based MMCR measurements. Therefore, this algorithm shows great potential for further improvement of the CBH retrievals as ground-based MMCR are being increasingly included in global surface meteorological observing networks, and the improved CBH retrievals will contribute to better cloud radiative effect estimates.