Cloud Radiative Properties over the South Pole from AVHRR Infrared Data

Over the Antarctic plateau, the radiances measured by the AVHRR middle infrared (11 and 12 mu m) channels are shown to depend on effective cloud temperature, emissivity, ice water path, and effective radius of the particle size distribution. The usefulness of these dependencies is limited by radiometric uncertainties of up to 2 K in brightness temperature and by the fact that the radiative transfer solutions are not single valued over all possible ranges of temperature, effective radius, and ice water path. Despite these limitations, AVHRR imagery can be used to characterize cloud optical properties over the Antarctic continent if surface weather observations and/or radiosonde data can be collocated with the satellite overpasses. From AVHRR imagery covering the South Pole during 1992, the mean cloud emissivity is estimated at 0.43 during summer and 0.37 during winter, while the mean summer and winter effective radii are estimated at 12.3 and 5.6 mu m, respectively. When a radiative transfer model is used to evaluate these results in comparison with surface pyrgeometer measurements, the comparison suggests that the AVHRR retrieval method captures the overall seasonal behavior in cloud properties. During months when the polar vortex persists, AVHRR infrared radiances may be noticeably influenced by polar stratospheric clouds.