The website will be undergoing a major upgrade beginning Friday, October 11th at 5:00 PM PDT. The new upgraded site will be available no later than Monday, October 21st. Please plan to complete any critical activities before or after this time.

Markovian Statistical Model of Cloud Optical Thickness. Part I: Theory and...

Alexandrov, M. D., A. Marshak, B. Cairns, and A. S. Ackerman (2022), Markovian Statistical Model of Cloud Optical Thickness. Part I: Theory and Examples, J. Atmos. Sci., 79, 3315-3332, doi:10.1175/JAS-D-22-0125.1.
Abstract: 

We present a generalization of the binary-value Markovian model previously used for statistical characterization of cloud masks to a continuous-value model describing 1D fields of cloud optical thickness (COT). This model has simple functional expressions and is specified by four parameters: the cloud fraction, the autocorrelation (scale) length, and the two parameters of the normalized probability density function of (nonzero) COT values (this PDF is assumed to have gamma-distribution form). Cloud masks derived from this model by separation between the values above and below some threshold in COT appear to have the same statistical properties as in binary-value model described in our previous publications. We demonstrate the ability of our model to generate examples of various cloud-field types by using it to statistically imitate actual cloud observations made by the Research Scanning Polarimeter (RSP) during two field experiments.

PDF of Publication: 
Download from publisher's website.
Research Program: 
Radiation Science Program (RSP)
Mission: 
ACTIVATE
ACE