The International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) was established as the first project of the

World Climate Research Program The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) is an international programme that helps to coordinate global climate research. The WCRP was established in 1980, under the joint sponsorship of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Inte ...

(WCRP). Since its inception in 1982, there have been two phases, 1983–1995 and 1995–2009. The project is responsible for collection and analysis of weather

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

radiance measurements. It infers

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

s' global distribution and properties, along with their diurnal,

seasonal A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

, and interannual variations. The results are studied to understand clouds in climate, including their effects on radiative energy exchanges, plus their role in the global water cycle. These datasets provide a systematic view of cloud behavior. The ISCCP headquarters were located at the

Goddard Institute for Space Studies The Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) is a laboratory in the Earth Sciences Division of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center affiliated with the Columbia University Earth Institute. The institute is located at Columbia University in ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. ISCCP data is stored at the ISCCP Central Archive and at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

. While the data are typically used for climate study, they are also a valuable resource for astronomical pursuits. ISCCP was headed by William B. Rossow. From 1983, institutions from around the world have collected and analyzed satellite radiance measurements from two polar orbiting and five geostationary satellites.

Objectives

The goals and objectives of the ISCCP have included:

#"Produce a global, reduced-resolution, calibrated and normalized, infrared and visible radiance dataset, along with basic information on the radiative properties of the atmosphere, from which cloud parameters can be derived. #Coordinate basic research on techniques for inferring the physical properties of clouds from satellite radiance data. #Derive and validate a global cloud climatology. #Promote research using ISCCP data to improve parameterizations of clouds in climate models. #Improve understanding of the earth’s radiation budget (top-of-atmosphere and surface) and hydrological cycle."

Criticism

Some scientists suggest that the decreasing trends in the ISCCP data are "satellite viewing geometry artifacts" and the data may not be appropriate for some long-term global studies.

References

{{Reflist

* Evan, A. T., Heidinger, A. K., & Vimont, D. J. (2007). "Arguments against a physical long-term trend in global ISCCP cloud amounts (DOI 10.1029/2006GL028083)". ''Geophysical Research Letters''. 34 (4), L04701. ISSN 0094-8276 * Knapp, K. R. (2008). "Calibration Assessment of ISCCP Geostationary Infrared Observations Using HIRS". ''Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology''. 25 (2), 183-195. ISSN 0739-0572 * Meinke, I. (2006). "A Comparison of Simulated Clouds to ISCCP Data". ''Monthly Weather Review''. 134 (6), 1669-1681. ISSN 0027-0644 * Rossow, W.B., Y. Desormeaux, C.L. Brest, and A. Walker (1992): ''International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) Radiance Calibration Report''. WMO/TD 520. World Climate Research Programme. * Rossow, W.B., and R.A. Schiffer (1999): "Advances in understanding clouds from ISCCP". ''Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc.'', 80, 2261-2288, doi:10.1175/1520-0477(1999)080<2261:AIUCFI>2.0.CO;2. * Schiffer, R.A., and W.B. Rossow (1983): "The International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP): The first project of the World Climate Research Programme". ''Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc.'', 64, 779-784. * Tsuang, B.-J., Chou, M.-D., Zhang, Y., Roesch, A., & Yang, K. (2008). "Evaluations of Land-Ocean Skin Temperatures of the ISCCP Satellite Retrievals and the NCEP and ERA Reanalyses". ''Journal of Climate''. 21 (2), 308-330. ISSN 0894-8755

External links

Official website

GIBBS (Global ISCCP B1 Browse System, 1974-2008)

Climatological research Clouds Scientific organizations established in 1982

Objectives

Criticism

See also

References

Further reading

External links