Cloud Detection by Satellites

Threshold Technique:

The simplest technique used for extracting cloud

information from digital satellite images

Principle: A visible radiance or infrared radiance is set

such that if a pixel is brighter or colder than the
temperature threshold, the pixel is assumed to be cloud
covered.
The fractional area covered by cloud is simply the ratio of
the number of cloudy pixels to total number of pixels

The cloud height can be determined by comparing the

infrared brightness temperature with a sounding
A typical satellite image
There are two complications:
Some clouds are smaller than the satellite scan spot
How to set a threshold?

Lclr : radiance from clear sky scene

Lcld : radiance from cloudy scene

Pixels that are partly filled with clouds will have radiances
between Lclr and Lcld
If threshold is set near Lclr, all partly filled pixels will be counted
as cloudy pixels. This will result in an overestimate of cloud
amount
If threshold is set near Lcld, all partly filled pixels will be counted
as clear pixels. This will result in an underestimate of cloud
amount
The problem can be solved by setting two thresholds:
one near Lclr and one near Lcld

Pixels that are in between the two thresholds, are counted

as 50% cloud covered

Setting the threshold is another difficulty in threshold

technique. The problem is that threshold is a function of
many variables

Surface type (land, ocean, ice etc.), surface conditions,

season, time of the day and even satellite-Sun-Earth
geometry
Histogram Technique:

This technique serve as alternative to threshold technique.

Principle: Pixels with similar characteristics cluster around

same point when plotted as histogram

Here visible albedo versus IR brightness temperature is

plotted. High clouds are white and cold: Thus having high
albedo and low IRBT.

Low clouds which are dark, are hotter: Thus having low
albedo and high IRBT.
 300
290 Cu
IR Brightness Temperature 280
270
St
260
250
240
230
220 Ci
210
200
0 20 40 60 80
Visible Albedo
Cloud Masking based on
spatial coherence method
[Coakley and Bretherton,1982].
Fig. Arch diagrams for 3x3 pixel array of
a 60x60 pixel box from a DI and their
classification according to the cloud algorithm:

(a) (Top) typical arch with its clear foot

delimited

(b) (Bottom) clear foot classified as fully

clear
 How To identify clear-sky pixels?
250

200
Number of Points

150
Foot Length = 11 K

100

50

0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19
Bin Centre (K)

Next step is to find the threshold standard deviation.

The threshold standard deviation is defined as the standard

deviation below which 90% of points within clear foot exists.
(c) An arch without clear
foot which is classified as
fully cloudy

(d)Arch classified as dust

 7

6
cloudy
5
Std. Dev .

3 thin clouds / dust

(25 – 30)
2

1 Dust (15 – 25)

0
0 10 20 30 40
Mean