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International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) Stage DX Pixel Level Cloud Product - Revised Algorithm in Binary Format

Metadata Updated: December 6, 2023

ISCCP_DX_1 is the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) Stage DX Pixel Level Cloud Product - Revised Algorithm in Binary Format data set. It contains 3-hourly, 30 KM satellite image projection data from various polar and geostationary satellites. Pixel Level Cloud Product contents include calibrated radiances, cloud detection results, and cloud and surface properties from radiative analysis. Data collection for this data set is complete.

ISCCP was the first project of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) and was established in 1982 (WMO-35 1982, Schiffer and Rossow 1983) to: produce a global, reduced resolution, calibrated and normalized radiance data set containing basic information on the properties of the atmosphere from which cloud parameters can be derived; stimulate and coordinate basic research on techniques for inferring the physical properties of clouds from the condensed radiance data set and to apply the resulting algorithms to derive and validate a global cloud climatology for improving the parameterization of clouds in climate models; and promote research using ISCCP data that contributes to improved understanding of the Earth's radiation budget and hydrological cycle.

Starting in 1983, an international group of institutions collected and analyzed satellite radiance measurements from up to five geostationary and two polar orbiting satellites to infer the global distribution of cloud properties and their diurnal, seasonal and inter-annual variations. The primary focus of the first phase of the project (1983-1995) was the elucidation of the role of clouds in the radiation budget (top of the atmosphere and surface). In the second phase of the project (1995 onward) the analysis was also concerned with improving understanding of clouds in the global hydrological cycle.

The ISCCP analysis combined satellite-measured radiances (Stage B3 data, Schiffer and Rossow 1985, Rossow et al. 1987) with the Tiros Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) atmospheric temperature-humidity and ice/snow correlative data sets to obtain information about clouds and the surface. The analysis method first determined the presence of or absence of clouds in each individual image pixel and retrieved the radiometric properties of the cloud for each cloudy pixel and of the surface for each clear pixel. The pixel analysis was performed separately for each satellite radiance data set and the results were reported in the Stage DX data product, which had a nominal resolution of 30 km and 3 hours. The Stage D1 product was produced by summarizing the pixel-level results every 3 hours on an equal-area map with 280 km resolution and merging the results from separate satellites with the atmospheric and ice/snow data sets to produce global coverage at each time. The Stage D2 data product was produced by averaging the Stage D1 data over each month, first at each of the eight three hour time intervals and then over all time intervals.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date December 1, 2022
Metadata Updated Date December 6, 2023

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date December 1, 2022
Metadata Updated Date December 6, 2023
Publisher NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC
Maintainer
Identifier C2147305318-LARC_ASDC
Data First Published 1983-06-30
Language en-US
Data Last Modified 2009-12-31
Category ISCCP, geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 026:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://data.nasa.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Citation 2002-06-11. Archived by National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U.S. Government, NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC. https://doi.org/10.5067/ISCCP/DX.
Harvest Object Id 88279204-2f12-460b-b96b-145b0a81444e
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://doi.org/10.5067/ISCCP/DX
Metadata Type geospatial
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Program Code 026:001
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 484ed6ef27f08abc80d38b7bf51b5b337aa843dec19c7c251ee8573ac6b64576
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial
Temporal 1983-06-30T00:00:00Z/2009-12-31T23:59:59.999Z

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