Recent studies on satellite remote sensing of clouds in Japan

In the latest decade satellite remote sensing of atmospheres, especially of clouds, has been rapidly developed in Japan. A brief review of satellite remote sensing of clouds by Japanese scientists is introduced in this paper. Most of the satellite data used in these studies are obtained by NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). From the infrared split window data which is defined as a brightness temperature difference of AVHRR between channel 4 and channel 5, cloud type classification in the tropical region and identification of clouds over the ice sheet in the Antarctica were successfully carried out. The optical thickness, droplet effective radius, and liquid water path of lower level stratified clouds were obtained from the reflection measurements of solar radiation by visible channel 1 and near infrared channel 3. In addition to AVHRR data analysis, a future perspective of Japanese Earth observation satellite is shortly described.