Cloud phase identification based on brightness temperatures provided by the bi-spectral IR Camera of JEM-EUSO Mission

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Physics Department, Avda. de la Universidad 30, 28911 Leganés (Madrid), Spain

^a e-mail: sbriz@fis.uc3m.es

Published online: 26 March 2015

Abstract

Cloud information is extremely important to correctly interpret the JEM-EUSO telescope data since UV radiation coming from the Extensive Air Shower can be partially absorbed or reflected by clouds. In order to observe the atmosphere and clouds in the field of view of the UV telescope the JEM-EUSO system will include an Atmospheric Monitoring System, which consists of a LIDAR and an IR Camera. Until now several radiative algorithms have been developed to retrieve the cloud top temperature from the brightness temperatures (BT) that the IR Camera will provide in two IR spectral bands (10.8 and 12 μm). In some cases the performance of the algorithms depends on cloud phase: water, ice or mixed. For this reason the identification of the cloud phase is valuable information for the correct interpretation of the cloud temperatures retrieved by radiative algorithms. Some previous proposals based on brightness temperature differences (BTD) have revealed that it is not easy to determine unambiguously the phase. In this work we present criteria to retrieve the cloud phase based on IR Camera BTDs. It has been checked with MODIS images to evaluate the possibilities to identify cloud phase with the JEM-EUSO IR Camera.