A fast method for retrieval of cloud parameters using oxygen A band measurements from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment

The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) on board the ERS-2 is-designe d to measure trace gas column densities in the Earth's atmosphere. Such ret rievals are hindered by the presence of clouds. The most important cloud pa rameters that are needed to correct trace gas column density retrievals for the disturbing effects of clouds are the (effective) cloud fraction and cl oud top pressure. At present, in the operational COME data processor an eff ective cloud fraction is derived for each pixel, but cloud top pressure is assumed a priori and is deduced from a climatological database. Here we rep ort an improved cloud retrieval scheme, which simultaneously retrieves the effective cloud fraction and cloud top pressure from COME data. This algori thm, called Fast Retrieval Scheme for Clouds from the Oxygen A band (FRESCO ), makes use of reflectivities as measured by GOME inside and outside the o xygen A band (758-778 nm). For validation, the results of FRESCO are compar ed to effective cloud fractions and cloud top pressures derived with standa rd methods from colocated measurements made by the Along Track Scanning Rad iometer-2 (ATSR-2). The brightness temperatures of the cloudy pixels as mea sured by ATSR-2 are related to cloud top pressures using temperature profil es from the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasts model. Gener ally, the results from FRESCO and ATSR-2 agree reasonably well. For the eff ective cloud fractions the average difference (based on a comparison of 322 points) is 0.04; the standard deviation is 0.09. For the cloud top pressur es, only points with an effective cloud fraction larger than 0.1 have been compared. For these 236 points the average difference in cloud top pressure is 65 hPa, and the standard deviation is 92 hPa.