Title: Radiance enhancement and shortwave upwelling radiative flux methods for efficient detection of cloud scenes

Authors: Rehan Siddiqui; Rajinder K. Jagpal; Sanjar M. Abrarov; Brendan M. Quine

Addresses: Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Canada; Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Canada; Epic College of Technology, 5670 McAdam Rd., Mississauga, L4Z 1T2, Canada; Epic Climate Green (ECG) Inc., 23 Westmore Dr., Unit 310, Toronto, M9V 3Y7, Canada ' Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Canada; Epic College of Technology, 5670 McAdam Rd., Mississauga, L4Z 1T2, Canada; Epic Climate Green (ECG) Inc., 23 Westmore Dr., Unit 310, Toronto, M9V 3Y7, Canada ' Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Canada; Epic College of Technology, 5670 McAdam Rd., Mississauga, L4Z 1T2, Canada; Epic Climate Green (ECG) Inc., 23 Westmore Dr., Unit 310, Toronto, M9V 3Y7, Canada ' Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Canada; Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Canada

Abstract: The description, imagery and interpretation of cloud scenes by remote sensing datasets from Earth-orbiting satellites have become a great debate for several decades. Presently, there are many models for cloud detection and its classifications have been reported. However, none of the existing models can efficiently detect the clouds within the small band of shortwave upwelling radiative wavelength flux (SWupRF) in the spectral range from 1,100 to 1,700 nm. Therefore, in order to detect the clouds more effectively, a method known as the radiance enhancement (RE) can be implemented (Siddiqui et al., 2015). This article proposes new approaches how with RE and SWupRF methods to distinguish cloud scenes by space orbiting Argus 1000 micro-spectrometer utilising the GENSPECT line-by-line radiative transfer model (Quine and Drummond, 2002; Siddiqui, 2017). This RE approach can also be used within the selected wavelength band for the detection of combustion-originated aerosols due to seasonal forest fires.

Keywords: radiance enhancement; cloud detection; radiative transfer; shortwave; upwelling flux; micro-spectrometer; remote sensing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPACESE.2020.109745

International Journal of Space Science and Engineering, 2020 Vol.6 No.1, pp.1 - 27

Received: 22 Jul 2019
Accepted: 29 Oct 2019
Published online: 22 Sep 2020 *

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