The Macrophysical Properties of Shallow Cumulus Clouds from Moderate- and High-resolution Satellite Data Collected over the Tropical Western Pacific
Shallow cumulus cloud fields play a very important role in Earth’s global water and energy cycles. Unfortunately, their properties are difficult to quantify using meteorological satellite instruments owing to the fact that shallow cumuli are typically smaller than the measurement resolution of these instruments. This results in retrieved cloud properties that are biased, which can lead to their biased representation in climate models. Using high-resolution satellite data and data from field campaigns remains our primary method for accurately retrieving the properties of these small clouds. Here, cumulus cloud fields over the tropical western Pacific are examined using satellite and aircraft data collected during the Cloud, Aerosol and Monsoon Processes Philippines Experiment (CAMP2Ex) mission from August to October 2019. We first include the high-resolution Terra-ASTER data collected from CAMP2Ex into the training set for the MISR-resolution-corrected cloud fraction product and examine the performance of this expanded training set. We then also summarize the observed macrophysical properties of the cumuli, including the size, shape, and spatial (horizontal and vertical) distributions based on the CAMP2Ex ASTER data and compare our results to other studies. Finally, we investigate the relationship of the observed macrophysical properties to the meteorological conditions.
