Earth ID: 30385

Monthly Cloud Optical Thickness (Terra/MODIS)

Released on October 24, 2013

To better understand the role of clouds in the Earth's climate system, scientists need two important measurements: cloud optical thickness and cloud particle size. A cloud's optical thickness is a measure of attenuation of the light passing through the atmosphere due to the scattering and absorption by cloud droplets. Clouds do not absorb visible wavelengths of sunlight; rather, clouds scatter and reflect most visible light. The higher a cloud's optical thickness, the more sunlight the cloud is scattering and reflecting. These maps show monthly cloud optical thickness from January 2005 to the present, produced using data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument onboard NASA’s Terra satellite. Dark blue shades indicate areas where there are low cloud-optical-thickness values, while white shades indicate high values (i.e., greater attenuation caused by the scattering and absorption from cloud droplets).

For More Information

http://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/Search.html?datasetId=MODAL2_M_CLD_OT

Credits

Marit Jentoft-Nilsen: Visualizer
Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC): Visualizer

Based on imagery by Reto Stockli, NASA's Earth Observatory, using data provided by the MODIS Atmosphere Science Team, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

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Mission:
Terra

Data Used:

Terra/MODIS

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This item is part of this series:
NASA Earth Observations

Keywords:
DLESE >> Atmospheric science
SVS >> HDTV
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Clouds >> Cloud Optical Depth/Thickness
SVS >> Hyperwall
NASA Science >> Earth
SVS >> Presentation

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0