Satellite Inferred Global Climatology

Clouds are essential for life to exist on earth due to their influential climatological impact. Clouds help control the radiation balance of the earth by reflecting incoming solar radiation, a cooling process; however, clouds also act as absorbers of terrestrial infrared radiation, a warming process. This dual role is a primary motive to examine the effects clouds have on the global climate. Quantitatively observing cloud characteristics on a global domain is not a trivial task. Many attempts compiled years of global datasets from human surface observations to obtain cloud frequencies to infer climatologies such as that conducted by Barnes et al. [1968], Greaves et al. [1971], and Falls [1974]. Although useful, something more concrete and unbiased was desired. The introduction of satellite based remote sensing platforms in the 1960’s made this seemingly unattainable task more realistic. The first attempts at cloud climatology using satellite observations were inherently diminished by the lack of spatial resolution available at the age. However, as time progressed, the technology advanced and this science became more refined. This leaves us to present day where numerous satellites orbit the earth probing and studying the finite characteristics of the atmosphere’s clouds and incorporating these datasets into global climatological models to aid in the prediction of climate change.