Cloud top pressure retrieval with DSCOVR-EPIC oxygen A and B bands observation
Abstract. An analytic transfer model for Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) observation was proposed to retrieve the cloud top pressure (CTP) with considering in-cloud photon penetration. In this model, an analytic equation was developed to represent the reflection at top of atmosphere (TOA) from above cloud, in-cloud and below-cloud. The coefficients of this analytic equation can be derived from a series of EPIC simulations under different atmospheric conditions using a non-linear regression algorithm. With estimated cloud pressure thickness, the CTP can be retrieved from EPIC observation data by solving the analytic equation. To simulate the EPIC measurements, a program package using the double-k approach was developed, which can calculate high-accuracy results with a one-hundred-fold time reduction. During the retrieval processes, two kinds of retrieval results, i.e., baseline CTP and retrieved CTP, are provided. The baseline CTP is derived without considering in-cloud photon penetration, and the retrieved CTP is derived by solving the analytic equation, taking into consideration the in-cloud and below-cloud interactions. The retrieved CTP for the oxygen A and B bands are smaller than their related baseline CTP. At the same time, both baseline CTP and retrieved CTP at the oxygen B-band are obviously larger than those at the oxygen A-band. Compared to the difference of baseline CTP between the B-band and A-band, the difference of retrieved CTP between these two bands is generally reduced.