CLARA-A1: CM SAF cLouds, Albedo and Radiation Dataset from AVHRR data - Edition 1 - Monthly Means / Daily Means / Pentad Means / Monthly Histograms

Abstract:
The CLARA-A1 dataset is a global dataset of cloud, surface albedo and surface radiation products derived from measurements of the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) onboard the polar orbiting NOAA and Metop satellites. Monthly and daily mean products have been compiled over a time period of 28 years starting in 1982 and ending in 2009. Results are available for individual satellites as well as aggregated for all satellites. Results are provided on two types of grids: one global regular latitude-longitude grid with 0.25 degrees resolution and two equal-area grids covering the polar regions with 25 km resolution (products on the polar grids are restricted to cloud amount and surface albedo). Further extensions, e.g. single- and multi-parameter histograms, and subsets, e.g. daytime-only and night-time only results, are also included. Products covered by this are: Cloud Fraction, Joint Cloud Histogram, Cloud Top Products, Cloud Optical Thickness, Cloud Phase, Liquid Water Path, Ice Water Path, Surface Incoming Shortwave Radiation, Surface Albedo, Surface Net Shortwave Radiation, Surface Outgoing Longwave Radiation, Surface Downward Longwave Radiation, Surface Net Longwave Radiation, Surface Radiation Budget, Cloud Radiative Effect Shortwave, Cloud Radiative Effect Longwave. This is a Thematic Climate Data Record (TCDR). The assigned DOI for this dataset is: 10.5676/EUM_SAF_CM/CLARA_AVHRR/V001. An updated version of the TCDR is available. Users are recommended to use edition 2 of this TCDR (CLARA-2.1, EO:EUM:DAT:0338) .