Publication Date:
2015-11-11
Description:
Clouds play a tangible role in the Earth's atmosphere and in particular, the cloud base height (CBH) which is linked to cloud type is one of the important characteristic to describe the influence of clouds on the environment. In present study, CBH observations from ceilometer CL31 have been extensively studied during May 2013 to January 2015 over Ahmedabad (23.03° N, 72.54° E), India. A detail comparison has been performed with the use of ground-based CBH measurements from ceilometer CL31 and CBH retrieved from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) onboard Aqua and Terra satellite. Some interesting features of cloud dynamics viz. strong downdraft and updraft have been observed over Ahmedabad which revealed different cloud characteristics during monsoon and post-monsoon periods. CBH shows seasonal variation during Indian summer monsoon and post-monsoon period. Results indicate that ceilometer is one of the excellent instruments to precisely detect low and mid-level clouds and MODIS satellite provides accurate retrieval of high-level clouds over this region. The CBH algorithm used for MODIS satellite is also able to capture the low-level clouds.
Electronic ISSN:
1867-8610
Topics:
Geosciences
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