Cloud Products

This is an effort to bring together options for cloud data for 2000-2009

Goal: Collect Satellite Cloud data for the Sierra Nevada.

Temporal Resolution: 15 minute data would be ideal, hourly data is required

Spatial Resolution: Highest possible - matching MODIS 500m is ideal. 1/8 degree is probably too coarse but may be necessary for temporal resolution to be hourly

NASA Langley Cloud and Radiation Research The data streams are both pixel-level (4-km) retrievals and averages on a 0.3 or 0.5 degree latitude-longitude grid. [1]

Short Text Description of VISST and ISST [2]

VISST Algorithm Description From Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program [3] [4]

Binary Pixel Data Availability [5]

Code to Unpack Binary Data [6]

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GOES Surface and Insolation Products (GSIP) The data is at 1/8 degree and at 1 hour temporal resolution (for the Northern Hemisphere sectors, which contain CA)

GOES-WEST Northern Hemisphere files (which is every hour on the hour). The data on CLASS is only in netCDF format

Comprehensive Large Array-data Stewardship System (CLASS) site [7] use the pull down menu and select "GOES Surface and Insolation Products (GSIP)