Description
A method for estimating the height of the marine layer by use of satellite radiance temperatures using NOAA-11 and NOAA-12 AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) channel 4 images is proposed. The marine lay er top and cloud top are at the base of a temperature inversion. The height of the base of the inversion is obtained from in-situ measurements. Correlation of the inversion base height and the satellite radiance temperature then provides a means for estimating the cloud heights from satellite IA images. Once the correlation is established, the absolute height of the marine layer can be estimated over a large areal extent using satellite IA images. In theory, the relative height of the marine layer can be estimated by use of cloud top temperatures as higher cloud tops will radiate at longer wavelengths (lower temperature) and vice versa; however, with the small data set available for this study this could not be verified. with radiosonde (in-situ) data. With this correlation, we will have a useful tool for determining relative cloud top heights from digitized satellite photos. This method is particularly useful when radiosonde data is lacking or one needs to determine cloud top heights over a large areal extent.
