Articles | Volume 15, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4901-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4901-2023
Data description paper
 | 
02 Nov 2023
Data description paper |  | 02 Nov 2023

CLARA-A3: The third edition of the AVHRR-based CM SAF climate data record on clouds, radiation and surface albedo covering the period 1979 to 2023

Karl-Göran Karlsson, Martin Stengel, Jan Fokke Meirink, Aku Riihelä, Jörg Trentmann, Tom Akkermans, Diana Stein, Abhay Devasthale, Salomon Eliasson, Erik Johansson, Nina Håkansson, Irina Solodovnik, Nikos Benas, Nicolas Clerbaux, Nathalie Selbach, Marc Schröder, and Rainer Hollmann

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Cited articles

Akkermans, T. and Clerbaux, N.: Narrowband-to-broadband conversions for top-of-atmosphere reflectance from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), Remote Sens., 12, 305, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12020305 , 2020. 
Akkermans, T. and Clerbaux, N.: Retrieval of Daily Mean Top-of-Atmosphere Reflected Solar Flux Using the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Instruments, Remote Sens., 13, 3695, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13183695, 2021. 
Baum, B. A., Yang, P., Heymsfield, A. J., Schmitt, C. G., Xie, Y., Bansemer, A., Hu, Y.-X., and Zhang, Z.: Improvements in shortwave bulk scattering and absorption models for the remote sensing of ice clouds, J. Appl. Meteorol. Clim., 50, 1037–1056, https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JAMC2608.1, 2011. 
Bodas-Salcedo, A., Webb, M. J., Bony, S., Chepfer, H., Dufresne, J.-L., Klein, S. A., Zhang, Y., Marchand, R., Haynes, J. M., Pincus, R., and John, V. O.: COSP: satellite simulation software for model assessment, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 92, 1023–1043, https://doi.org/10.1175/2011BAMS2856.1, 2011. 
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Short summary
This paper presents a global climate data record on cloud parameters, radiation at the surface and at the top of atmosphere, and surface albedo. The temporal coverage is 1979–2020 (42 years) and the data record is also continuously updated until present time. Thus, more than four decades of climate parameters are provided. Based on CLARA-A3, studies on distribution of clouds and radiation parameters can be made and, especially, investigations of climate trends and evaluation of climate models.
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