On the relative stability of CERES reflected shortwave and MISR and MODIS visible radiance measurements during the Terra satellite mission

Abstract

Fifteen years of visible, near‐infrared, and broadband shortwave radiance measurements from Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES), Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR), and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on board NASA's Terra satellite are analyzed in order to assess their long‐term relative stability for climate purposes. A regression‐based approach between CERES, MODIS, and MISR (An camera only) reflectances is used to calculate the bias between the different reflectances relative to a reference year. When compared to the CERES shortwave broadband reflectance, relative drift between the MISR narrowbands is within 1% decade−1. Compared to the CERES shortwave reflectance, the MODIS narrowband reflectances show a relative drift of less than −1.33% decade−1. When compared to MISR, the MODIS reflectances show a relative drift of between −0.36% decade−1 and −2.66% decade−1. We show that the CERES Terra SW measurements are stable over the time period relative to CERES Aqua. Using this as evidence that CERES Terra may be absolutely stable, we suggest that the CERES, MISR, and MODIS instruments meet the radiometric stability goals for climate applications set out in Ohring et al. (2005).

Decadal Changes of the Reflected Solar Radiation and the Earth Energy Imbalance

“…It corresponds to a residual CERES RSR ageing of −0.5 ± 0.11 %/dec. This value is not inconsistent with the CERES stability estimates from lunar calibrations [8] and comparison with other sensors [9]. Further on we apply a linear drift correction to remove this residual ageing.…”

Comparative study of five current reanalyses in characterizing total cloud fraction and top‐of‐the‐atmosphere cloud radiative effects over the Asian monsoon region

“…The CERES observational system has been very stable since 2000 and the retrieved high‐quality radiative fluxes are suitable for multi‐year analysis of the earth–atmosphere radiation budget, including its inter‐annual variation (Corbett and Loeb, ). Hence, the temporal STD is used to represent the intensity of the inter‐annual variability of CREs and TCF during 2001–2014.…”

Cloud responses to climate variability over the extratropical oceans as observed by MISR and MODIS

“…We note here that an analysis of the MISR calibration suggests that MISR near-IR radiances (used to obtain MISR optical depths) likely have a small downward drift of about 0.9 % to 1.5 % per 10 years (Bruegge et al, 2014;Corbett and Loeb, 2015;Limbacher and Kahn, 2017). This calibration drift can be expected to reduce the retrieved optical depth, decreasing the occurrence of clouds with large optical depths in the CTH-OD product, and increasing the occurrences of clouds with moderate optical depths.…”

“…As with MISR, there is evidence for drifts in the MODIS calibration (Lyapustin et al, 2014). Corbett et al (2015) compares both MISR and MODIS Terra level 1 radiances to collocated CERES outgoing shortwave radiation observations and finds that while MISR red, green, and near IR bands have darkened relative to CERES, MODIS Terra red and near IR bands have brightened, which likely explains much of the discrepancy between MODIS Terra and MISR cloud optical thickness trends. Taken in combination, the MISR and MODIS data suggest that there has been a reduction in cloud optical thickness during the period studied, at in least in the North and South Atlantic Ocean and likely the North Pacific as well.…”

“…For instance, Prohaska (1976) applies SVD to the temporal correlation matrix computed between monthly mean sea level pressure and temperature fields. MCA has also been historically used to understand climate data, in particular, since about 2000, it has been heavily utilized to identify interactions between sea surface temperature and atmospheric variables (Czaja and Frankignoul, 1999;Liu et al, 2006;Frankignoul et al, 2011, and references therein). It has also been used in other areas of the earth sciences, for instance in sea-ice modeling (Dirkson et al, 2015) and the study of the structure of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (Adames and Wallace, 2014).…”