Sammanfattning
Cloud top temperature and height estimates obtained from AVHRR infrared imagery require a correction for semi-transparency when cirrus layers are present. In this work we investigated the possibility of using the 11 μm and
12 μm window channel brightness temperatures for the correction. We developed software which implements a method based on the work of Inoue (1985) and Derrien et al. (1988). In this method the cloud top temperature is derived for each small image segment by fitting a curve to . a twodimensional histogram of the segment, formed by using the brightness temperature
T ( 11 μm) and the brightness temperature diff erence T ( 11 μm) - T(l2μm). By extrapolating the model fit of the distribution to the opaque limit, a temperature estimate can be assigned to the semi-transparent cloud pixels, thereby replacing the measured brightness temperature which observes the combined background radiation and cloud emission. In this work, in addition to implementing data processing with the histogram based correction, we also developed a graphical user interface for testing the method, in order to provide a tool for the overall evaluation of the product.