CEOS EO HANDBOOK – MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTS
Measurements > Atmosphere >
Cloud type, amount and cloud top temperature >
Cloud cover


Measurement Definition*: 3D field of fraction of sky filled by clouds - Physical unit [ % ], Accuracy unit [ % ]

Thematic Links
InstrumentStatus/
Accuracy
Instrument DescriptionMeasurement TechnologyTimeline
ABI
Advanced Baseline Imager
Operational
Detects clouds, cloud properties, water vapour, land and sea surface temperatures, dust, aerosols, volcanic ash, fires, total ozone, snow and ice cover, vegetation index.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
AGRI
Advanced Geosynchronous Radiation Imager
Operational
A multiple channel radiation imager, one of the primary instruments aboard FY-4. Technically featured by a precisely designed two-mirror structure, capable of accurate and flexible sensing in two dimensions, and minute-level fast sector scanning. Frequent Earth imaging over 14 bands with off-axis three reflections of the primary optic system. On-board black body available for IR calibrations at very short time intervals.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
AHI
Advanced Himawari Imager
Operational
Measures cloud cover, cloud motion, cloud height, cloud properties, water vapour, rainfalll, sea surface temperatures and Earth radiation, dust, aerosols, volcanic ash, fires, snow and ice cover.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
AIRS
Atmospheric Infra-red Sounder
Operational
High spectral resolution measurement of temperature and humidity profiles in the atmosphere. Long-wave Earth surface emissivity. Cloud diagnostics. Trace gas profiles. Surface temperatures.Medium-resolution IR spectrometer
AVHRR/3
Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer/3
Operational
Measurements of land and sea surface temperature, cloud cover, snow and ice cover, soil moisture and vegetation indices. Data also used for volcanic eruption monitoring.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
EPIC
Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera
Operational
Diurnal measurements of ozone, sulfur dioxide, UV surface radiation, clouds, aerosols and vegetation.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
FCI
Flexible Combined Imager
Operational
Measurements of cloud cover, cloud top height, precipitation, cloud motion, vegetation, radiation fluxes, convection, air mass analysis, cirrus cloud discrimination, tropopause monitoring, stability monitoring, total ozone and sea surface temperature.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
IASI
Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer
Operational
+/-10 %
Measures tropospheric moisture and temperature, column integrated contents of ozone, carbon monoxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other minor gases which affect tropospheric chemistry. Also measures sea surface and land temperature.Medium-resolution IR spectrometer
IKFS-2
IR-Fourier spectrometer
Operational
Atmospheric temperature/humidity profiles, data on cloud parameters, water vapour & ozone column amounts, surface temperature.n/a
MISR
Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer
Operational
Measurements of global surface albedo, aerosol and vegetation properties. Also provides multi-angle bidirectional data (1% angle-to-angle accuracy) for cloud cover and reflectances at the surface and aerosol opacities. Global and local modes.n/a
MODIS
MODerate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
Operational
Data on biological and physical processes on the surface of the Earth and in the lower atmosphere, and on global dynamics. Surface temperatures of land and ocean, chlorophyll fluorescence, land cover measurements, cloud cover (day and night).n/a
MSU-GS
Multispectral scanning imager-radiometer
Operational
Measurements of cloud cover, cloud top height, precipitation, cloud motion, albedo, vegetation, convection, air mass analysis, tropopause monitoring, stability monitoring, total ozone and surface temperature, fire detection.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
MSU-GS/VE
Multispectral scanning imager-radiometer
Operational
Operational metrology, hydrology, climate monitoring and environmental monitoringMulti-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
MVIRS
Moderate Resolution Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectroradiometer
Operational
Measures surface temperature and cloud and ice cover. Used for snow and flood monitoring and surface temperature.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
OCI
Ocean Color Instrument
Operational
Ocean color slit-grating imaging spectrometer/radiometer for measuring top of atmosphere reflectance which is used to estimate ocean leaving light that contains information on biological components plus aerosol and cloud propertiesln/a
OLCI
Ocean and Land Colour Imager
Operational
Marine and land services.n/a
OLI
Operational Land Imager
Operational
Measures surface radiance, land cover state, and change (e.g., vegetation type). Used as multi-purpose imagery for land applications.n/a
OLI-2
Operational Land Imager 2
Operational
Measures surface radiance, land cover state, and change (e.g., vegetation type). Used as multi-purpose imagery for land applications.n/a
OLS
Operational Linescan System
Operational
Day and night cloud cover imagery.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
POSP
Particulate Observing Scanning Polarimeter
Operational
Sensor to map radiometric and polarimetric information of global atmospheric particulate matter specifically PM2.5 and PM10 distributions.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
SEVIRI
Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infra-Red Imager
Operational
Measurements of cloud cover, cloud top height, precipitation, cloud motion, vegetation, radiation fluxes, convection, air mass analysis, cirrus cloud discrimination, tropopause monitoring, stability monitoring, total ozone and sea surface temperature.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
SGLI
Second-generation Global Imager
Operational
+/-15 %
Medium resolution multi-spectral imaging of land, ocean and atmosphere. SGLI-VNR is an optical sensor capable of multi-channel nadir observation at wavelengths from near-UV to NIR and forward or backward polarization observation at red and near infrared wavelengths (Push-broom scanning). SGLI-IRS is an optical sensor capable of multi-channel nadir observation at wavelengths from SWIR to TIR wavelengths (Cross-track scanning).n/a
Sounder
Sounder
Operational
Atmospheric soundings and data on atmospheric stability and thermal gradient winds.n/a
TANSO-CAI
Thermal And Near infrared Sensor for carbon Observation - Cloud and Aerosol Imager
Operational
Detection and correction of cloud and aerosol for TANSO-FTS.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
TANSO-CAI-2
Thermal And Near infrared Sensor for carbon Observation - Cloud and Aerosol Imager-2
Operational
Detection and correction of cloud and aerosol for TANSO-FTS, aerosol characteristicsMulti-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
TIRS
Thermal Infrared Sensor
Operational
Measures longwave thermal infrared surface emittance, land cover state, and change. Used as multipurpose imagery for land applications.n/a
TIRS-2
Thermal Infrared Sensor 2
Operational
Measures longwave thermal infrared surface emittance, land cover state, and change. Used as multipurpose imagery for land applications. TIRS-2 will adhere to the Landsat 8 TIRS instrument performance specifications but will be built to NASA Class-B instrument standards (including a 5-year design life).n/a
VIIRS
Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite
Operational
Global observations of land, ocean, and atmosphere parameters: cloud/weather imagery, sea-surface temperature, ocean colour, land surface vegetation indices.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
CLIM
3-band CLoud Imager
Being developed
3-band cloud pushbroom imager for detecting low and high clouds in the spatial sample of CO2I allowing to remove these data from the retrieval process.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
CPR (EarthCARE)
Cloud Profiling Radar (EarthCARE)
Being developed
Measurement of cloud properties, light precipitation, vertical motion.Cloud and precipitation radar
GXI
GeoXO Imager
Being developed
Detects clouds, cloud properties, water vapour, land and sea surface temperatures, dust, aerosols, volcanic ash, fires, total ozone, snow and ice cover, vegetation index.Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
IASI-NG
Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer - New Generation
Being developed
+/-10 %
Measures profiles of atmospheric temperature, humidity, ozone, carbon monoxide, columns of methane, nitrous oxide, and other minor gases, and sea, ice, and land surface temperature and emissivity. Provides information on aeorols and cloud: fractional coverage, phase, cloud top height (input to Polar AMVs) and particle size. Prime applications: NWP, AC/AQ, climate. Secondary applications: NWC, land/ocean surface monitoring. IASI-NG will resume IASI role as internationl standard for satellite inter-calibration (GSICS).Medium-resolution IR spectrometer
IRS
Infra-Red Sounder
Being developed
Measurements of vertically resolved clear sky atmospheric motion vectors, temperature and water vapour profiles.Medium-resolution IR spectrometer
UVN (Sentinel-4)
UV-visible- near infrared imaging spectrometer (Sentinel-4)
Being developed
Supporting atmospheric composition and air quality monitoring services.n/a
UVNS (Sentinel-5)
Ultra-violet Visible Near-infrared Shortwave-infrared spectrometer
Being developed
Supporting atmospheric composition and air quality monitoring services. Measurements of atmospheric trace gases, primarily O3, NO2, SO2, HCHO, CH4, CO, CHOCHO as well as Aerosols and UV Index.n/a
GHMI
Geostationary HiMawari Imager
Approved
 Multi-purpose imaging Vis/IR radiometer
IKFS-3
Advanced Fourier spectrometer
Proposed
Atmospheric temperature/humidity profiles, data on cloud parameters, water vapour & ozone column amounts, surface temperature.n/a
LandIS
Landsat Next Instrument Suite
Proposed
Measures surface radiance, land cover state and change (e.g., vegetation type), and longwave termal infrared surface emittance. Used as multi-purpose imagery for land applications.n/a
* Description adapted from WMO.