Evaluation of a 5-Year Cloud and Radiative Property Dataset Derived from GOES-8 Data over the Southern Great Plains

Satellite cloud analyses can provide a long-term record of microphysical, macrophysical and radiative properties over a large area. However, to have confidence in these retrievals, the results must be compared with ground truth or reliable reference sources. The layered bispectral threshold method (LBTM; Minnis et al. 1995) has been used to derive cloud and radiative properties from the eighth geostationary operational environmental satellite (GOES-8) data over a 5-year period for the Southern Great Plains (SGP) domain. These properties include cloud OD, amount, height, temperature, and thickness, total and clear-sky longwave (LW) fluxes, clear-sky temperatures, and total and clear-sky albedos. In this paper, data from several ground instruments at the SGP central facility (CF) and from the Clouds and Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES; Wielicki et al. 1998) are used to examine the GOES-8 products.