Multisensor Advanced Climatology Total Liquid Water Path L3 Monthly 1 degree x 1 degree V1 (MACTWP_mean)

The Multi-Sensor Advanced Climatology of Liquid Water Path (MAC-LWP) data set contains monthly 1.0-degree ocean-only estimates of cloud liquid water path (MACLWP_mean), total water path (MACTWP_mean) which includes both cloud and rain water, and monthly climatologies of cloud liquid water path diurnal cycle amplitudes and phases (MACLWP_diurnal). The MACTWP_mean field can also be used as a quality-control screen for the MACLWP_mean field as discussed in Elsaesser et al. (2017), where uncertainty increases as the ratio of cloud to total water path increases.

The MAC-LWP algorithm uses as input the Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) Version 7 0.25 degree-resolution retrieval products (produced using the SSM/I, AMSR-E, TMI, AMSR-2, GMI, SSMIS, and WindSat satellite sensors), and performs a bias correction on all input RSS cloud water path products based on AMSR-E matchups to clear-sky MODIS scenes. The MAC-LWP algorithm ensures that spurious trends and variability in the cloud fields arising from drifting satellite overpass times are mitigated by simultaneously solving for the monthly average cloud and total water paths and monthly-mean diurnal cycles, as discussed in O’Dell et al. (2008).