{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,1]],"date-time":"2026-02-01T05:04:58Z","timestamp":1769922298728,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,5,18]],"date-time":"2020-05-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1589760000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["41775032 and 41275040"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41775032 and 41275040"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Cloud top height (CTH) is an essential pareter for the general circulation model in understanding the impact of clouds on the Earth\u2019s radiation budget and global climate change. This paper compares the CTH products, derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), onboard the Aqua and Terra satellites with ground-based Ka band radar data in Beijing from 2014 to 2017. The aim was to investigate the data accuracy and the difference in CTH measurements between passive satellite data and active ground-based radar data. The results show that MODIS, on average, underestimates CTH relative to radar by \u22121.08 \u00b1 2.48 km, but with a median difference of \u22120.65 km and about 48% of differences are within 1 km. Statistically, MODIS CTHs which are greater than 6 km show lower discrepancy to radar CTH than those of MODIS CTHs less than 4 km. The CTH difference is independent of cloud fraction and cloud layer. It shows strong dependence on cloud depth, decreasing as cloud depth increases. There is a tendency for MODIS to underestimate high thin clouds but overestimate low thin clouds relative to radar. Total ozone, SO2, CO, NO2, aerosol PM10, total water vapor and temperature inversion show unobvious influences in the CTH discrepancy. It is shown that the MODIS CO2-slicing technique performs much better than IRW (infrared window) technique when cloud layer is higher than 2 km. The average difference calculated from all comparisons by CO2-slicing technique and IRW technique is 0.09 \u00b1 1.58 km, and \u22122.20 \u00b1 2.73 km, respectively.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12101616","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,5,20]],"date-time":"2020-05-20T02:48:24Z","timestamp":1589942904000},"page":"1616","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["Measurement of Cloud Top Height: Comparison of MODIS and Ground-Based Millimeter Radar"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3241-3021","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Juan","family":"Huo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Middle Atmospheric and Global Environment Observation, Institute of Atmospheric of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China"},{"name":"University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jie","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute of Atmospheric of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Minzheng","family":"Duan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Middle Atmospheric and Global Environment Observation, Institute of Atmospheric of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China"},{"name":"University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Daren","family":"Lv","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Middle Atmospheric and Global Environment Observation, Institute of Atmospheric of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China"},{"name":"University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9256-5452","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Congzheng","family":"Han","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Middle Atmospheric and Global Environment Observation, Institute of Atmospheric of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China"},{"name":"University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yongheng","family":"Bi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Middle Atmospheric and Global Environment Observation, Institute of Atmospheric of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,5,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"23299","DOI":"10.1029\/96JD02156","article-title":"Absorption of solar radiation by clouds: Interpretations of satellite, surface, and aircraft measurements","volume":"101","author":"Cess","year":"1996","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res. Atmos."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4699","DOI":"10.1175\/JCLI-D-11-00267.1","article-title":"Reconciling simulated and observed views of clouds: MODIS, ISCCP, and the limits of instrument simulators","volume":"25","author":"Pincus","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Clim."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"57","DOI":"10.1126\/science.243.4887.57","article-title":"Cloud-Radiative forcing and climate: Results from the earth radiation budget experiment","volume":"243","author":"Ramanathan","year":"1989","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"898","DOI":"10.1029\/2009JD013124","article-title":"Apparent absorption of solar spectral irradiance in heterogeneous ice clouds","volume":"115","author":"Schmidt","year":"2010","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res. Atmos."},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Stocker, T.F., Qin, D., Plattner, G., Tignor, M., Allen, S., Boschung, J., Nauels, A., Xia, Y., Bex, V., and Midgley, P. (2013). Clouds and aerosols. Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis, Cambridge University Press. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Riese, M., Ploeger, F., Rap, A., Vogel, B., Konopka, P., Dameris, M., and Forster, P. (2012). Impact of uncertainties in atmospheric mixing on simulated UTLS composition and related radiative effects. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 117.","DOI":"10.1029\/2012JD017751"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1064","DOI":"10.1175\/JHM-395.1","article-title":"Updating a land surface model with MODIS-derived snow cover","volume":"5","author":"Rodell","year":"2004","journal-title":"J. Hydrometeorol."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"151","DOI":"10.2151\/jmsj.2016-009","article-title":"An introduction to Himawari-8\/9\u2014Japan\u2019s new-generation geostationary meteorological satellites","volume":"94","author":"Bessho","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Meteorol. Soc. Jpn."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1175","DOI":"10.1175\/2007JAMC1705.1","article-title":"Modis global cloud-top pressure and amount estimation: Algorithm description and results","volume":"47","author":"Menzel","year":"2008","journal-title":"J. Appl. Meteorol. Climatol."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1637","DOI":"10.1175\/BAMS-D-16-0065.1","article-title":"Introducing the new generation of Chinese geostationary weather satellites, Fengyun-4","volume":"98","author":"Yang","year":"2017","journal-title":"Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1941","DOI":"10.1002\/jgrd.50207","article-title":"Trends in ISCCP, MISR, and MODIS cloud-top-height and optical-depth histograms","volume":"118","author":"Marchand","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res. Atmos."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Weisz, E., Li, J., Menzel, W.P., Heidinger, A.K., Kahn, B.H., and Liu, C.-Y. (2007). Comparison of AIRS, MODIS, CloudSat and CALIPSO cloud top height retrievals. Geophys. Res. Lett., 34.","DOI":"10.1029\/2007GL030676"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"705","DOI":"10.1007\/s13351-019-8160-8","article-title":"Comparisons of AGRI\/FY-4A cloud fraction and cloud top pressure with MODIS\/Terra measurements over East Asia","volume":"33","author":"Wang","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. Meteorol. Res."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1145","DOI":"10.1175\/JAMC-D-11-0203.1","article-title":"MODIS cloud-top property refinements for collection 6","volume":"51","author":"Baum","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Appl. Meteorol. Climatol."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chang, F., Minnis, P., Ayers, J.K., Mcgill, M.J., Palikonda, R., Spangenberg, D.A., Smith, W.L., and Yost, C. (2010). Evaluation of satellite-based upper troposphere cloud top height retrievals in multilayer cloud conditions during TC4. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 115.","DOI":"10.1029\/2009JD013305"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Dong, X., Minnis, P., Xi, B., Sun-Mack, S., and Chen, Y. (2008). Comparison of CERES-MODIS stratus cloud properties with ground-bases measurements at the DOE ARM southern great plains site. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 113.","DOI":"10.1029\/2007JD008438"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"211","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2006.07.021","article-title":"Cloud top height comparisons from ASTER, MISR, and MODIS for trade wind cumuli","volume":"107","author":"Genkova","year":"2007","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3177","DOI":"10.5194\/amt-11-3177-2018","article-title":"Neural network cloud top pressure and height for MODIS","volume":"11","author":"Adok","year":"2018","journal-title":"Atmos. Meas. Tech."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1591","DOI":"10.1175\/2009JAMC2121.1","article-title":"Assessment of the quality of MODIS cloud products from radiance simulation","volume":"48","author":"Ham","year":"2009","journal-title":"J. Appl. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Leinonen, J., Lebsock, M., Oreopoulos, L., and Cho, N. (2016). Interregional differences in MODIS-derived cloud regimes. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 121.","DOI":"10.1002\/2016JD025193"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Naud, C., Muller, J.-P., and Clothiaux, E.E. (2002). Comparison of cloud top heights derived from MISR stereo and MODIS CO2-slicing. Geophys. Res. Lett., 29.","DOI":"10.1029\/2002GL015460"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Xi, B., Dong, X., Minnis, P., and Sun-Mack, S. (2014). Comparison of marine boundary layer cloud properties from CERES-MODIS Edition 4 and DOE ARM AMF measurements at the Azores. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 119.","DOI":"10.1002\/2014JD021813"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Purbantoro, B., Aminuddin, J., Manago, N., Toyoshima, K., Lagrosas, N., Sumantyo, J., and Kuze, H. (2019). Comparison of Aqua\/Terra MODIS and Himawari-8 satellite data on cloud mask and cloud type classification using split window algorithm. Remote Sens., 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs11242944"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lai, R., Teng, S., Yi, B., Letu, H., Min, M., Tang, S., and Liu, C. (2019). Comparison of cloud properties from Himawari-8 and FengYun-4A geostationary satellite radiometers with MODIS cloud retrievals. Remote Sens., 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs11141703"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Holz, R.E., Ackerman, S.A., Nagle, F.W., Frey, R., Dutcher, S., Kuehn, R.E., Vaughan, M.A., and Baum, B. (2008). Global Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud detection and height evaluation using CALIOP. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 113.","DOI":"10.1029\/2008JD009837"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Garay, M., Szoeke, S., and Moroney, C. (2008). Comparison of marine stratocumulus cloud top heights in the southeastern Pacific retrieved from satellites with coincident ship-based observations. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 113.","DOI":"10.1029\/2008JD009975"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"23195","DOI":"10.1029\/98JD01827","article-title":"On cloud radar and microwave radiometer measurements of stratus cloud liquid water profiles","volume":"103","author":"Frisch","year":"1998","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"675","DOI":"10.1175\/JTECH-D-14-00066.1","article-title":"A 35-GHz polarimetric Doppler radar for long-term observation of cloud parameters-description of system and data processing","volume":"32","author":"Lehmann","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"365","DOI":"10.1175\/JAMC-D-17-0164.1","article-title":"Toward improving ice water content and snow-rate retrievals from radars. Part II: Results from three wavelength radar\u2013collocated in situ measurements and CloudSat-GPM-TRMM radar data","volume":"57","author":"Heymsfield","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Appl. Meteorol. Climatol."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1608","DOI":"10.1175\/BAMS-88-10-1608","article-title":"Millimeter-Wavelength radars: New frontier in atmospheric cloud and precipitation research","volume":"88","author":"Kollias","year":"2007","journal-title":"Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1771","DOI":"10.1175\/BAMS-83-12-1771","article-title":"The CloudSat mission and the A-Train","volume":"83","author":"Stephens","year":"2002","journal-title":"Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1559","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0450(1993)032<1559:ACOSTT>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"A comparison of several techniques to assign heights to cloud tracers","volume":"32","author":"Nieman","year":"1993","journal-title":"J. Appl. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1796","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0450(1978)017<1796:COSDCH>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"Comparison of satellite deduced cloud heights with indications from radiosonde and ground-based laser measurements","volume":"17","author":"Smith","year":"1978","journal-title":"J. Appl. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"538","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0434(1991)006<0538:TNGOAS>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"The new global operational analysis system at the National Meteorological Center","volume":"6","author":"Derber","year":"1991","journal-title":"Weather Forecast."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"17039","DOI":"10.1029\/JD095iD10p17039","article-title":"Cloud characteristics over central amazonia during GTE\/ABLE 2B derived from multispectral visible and infrared spin scan radiometer atmospheric sounder observations","volume":"95","author":"Menzel","year":"1990","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res. Atmos."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"387","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0493(1968)096<0387:AIMFCT>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"An improved method for calculating tropospheric temperature and moisture from satellite radiometer measurements","volume":"96","author":"Smith","year":"1968","journal-title":"Mon. Weather Rev."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"658","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0450(1990)029<0658:OCADFH>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"On cloud altitude determinations from high resolution interferometer sounder (HIS) observations","volume":"29","author":"Smith","year":"1990","journal-title":"J. Appl. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_38","unstructured":"Ackerman, S., Menzel, P., and Frey, R. (2020, April 10). MODIS Atmosphere L2 Cloud Product (06_L2), Available online: https:\/\/modis.gsfc.nasa.gov\/data\/dataprod\/mod06.php."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1007\/s00376-019-8272-1","article-title":"Cloud classification and distribution of cloud types in Beijing using Ka Band radar data","volume":"36","author":"Huo","year":"2019","journal-title":"Adv. Atmos. Sci."},{"key":"ref_40","first-page":"129","article-title":"Ground-Based Ka-band cloud radar data quality control","volume":"33","author":"Xiao","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Chengdu Univ. Inf. Technol."}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/12\/10\/1616\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T09:30:05Z","timestamp":1760175005000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/12\/10\/1616"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,5,18]]},"references-count":40,"journal-issue":{"issue":"10","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,5]]}},"alternative-id":["rs12101616"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs12101616","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2072-4292","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,5,18]]}}}