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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, 36, L09811, doi:10.1029/2008GL037124, 2009.
View-angle consistency in reflectance, optical thickness and spherical
albedo of marine water-clouds over the northeastern Pacific through MISR-MODIS fusion.
Lusheng Liang, Larry Di Girolamo, and Steven Platnick
Abstract
View-angle consistency in bidirectional reflectance
factor (BRF), optical thickness and spherical albedo is
examined for marine water clouds over a region of the
northeastern Pacific using six years of fused Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and
Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) data.
Consistency is quantified by the root-mean-square of
relative differences between MISR-measured BRF and
their plane-parallel values and variation of plane-parallel
retrieved optical thickness and spherical albedo across
multiple view-angles. Probability distribution functions of
consistency show that, for example, these clouds are
angularly consistent within 5% in BRF, optical thickness
and spherical albedo 72.2%, 39.0% and 81.1% of the time,
respectively. We relate angular consistency to the spatial
variability of nadir-BRF, thus allowing us to potentially
identify, with a prescribed confidence level, which MODIS
microphysical retrievals within the MISR swath meet the
plane-parallel assumption to within any desired range in
view-angle consistency.
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