FengYun-4A (FY-4A)’s Geostationary Interferometric Infrared Sounder (GIIRS) is the first hyperspectral infrared sounder on board a geostationary satellite, enabling the collection of infrared detection data with high temporal and spectral resolution. As clouds have complex spectral characteristics, and the retrieval of atmospheric profiles incorporating clouds is a significant problem, it is often necessary to undertake cloud detection before further processing procedures for cloud pixels when infrared hyperspectral data is entered into assimilation system. In this study, we proposed machine-learning-based cloud detection models using two kinds of GIIRS channel observation sets (689 channels and 38 channels) as features. Due to differences in surface cover and meteorological elements between land and sea, we chose logistic regression (lr) model for the land and extremely randomized tree (et) model for the sea respectively. Six hundred and eighty-nine channels models produced slightly higher performance (Heidke skill score (HSS) of 0.780 and false alarm rate (FAR) of 16.6% on land, HSS of 0.945 and FAR of 4.7% at sea) than 38 channels models (HSSof 0.741 and FAR of 17.7% on land, HSS of 0.912 and FAR of 7.1% at sea). By comparing visualized cloud detection results with the Himawari-8 Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) cloud images, the proposed method has a good ability to identify clouds under circumstances such as typhoons, snow covered land, and bright broken clouds. In addition, compared with the collocated Advanced Geosynchronous Radiation Imager (AGRI)-GIIRS cloud detection method, the machine learning cloud detection method has a significant advantage in time cost. This method is not effective for the detection of partially cloudy GIIRS’s field of views, and there are limitations in the scope of spatial application.

No abstract

No abstract

Firstly, the annual variation of sandstorm and strong sandstorm weather process in China from 2000 to 2012 is analyzed according to the"Sand-Dust Weather Yearbook" (2012). Secondly, based on the ERA-Interim Reanalysis from ECMWF and MISR data from the Terra satellite, we investigate the correlation between different dust weather process and land meteorological elements. Finally, the temporal and spatial distribution features of the aerosol optical depth (AOD) in the Taklamakan Desert is studied. And we compare the Taklamakan Desert AOD with nationwide AOD. The results show that: (1) the frequency of sandstorm and strong sandstorm has shown a downward trend and the occurrence of sandstorm decreases more in recent years. (2) In the Taklamakan Desert, the number of sandstorm is positively correlated with the surface temperature, meanwhile, negatively related to the surface relative humidity. (3) In all seasons, the average of AOD in Taklamakan Desert is higher than that of the whole country, and there are obvious differences among the four seasons.

No abstract