Daytime Cloud Type for Himawari-8/9 (HIM_CLD_Day_Type) 

This cloud type product is part of the daytime cloud mask and properties collection, which was generated for daytime Himawari-8/9 imagery using the Qin et al. (2019) algorithm for the Australian continent and surrounding waters. The product is provided here in a regular latitude/longitude grid. It is also available in the original Himawari (geostationary) projection (WGS84, sub-satellite longitude = 140.7°E and satellite altitude = 35785863 meters). Please contact the authors for accessing the data, which is located on the Australian National Computational Infrastructure (NCI). Currently, a near-real-time algorithm/processor is being developed to improve data availability, and to extend production to Himawari-10 (2028-2045). 

We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. We at the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. This work was funded by TERN, an Australian Government NCRIS (National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy) enabled project, and is supported using TERN infrastructure. The research was undertaken at CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) collaboratively among research units (Environment, Energy, Agriculture and Food). The authors acknowledge the resources and services received from NCI and CSIRO HPC (High Performance Computing). We appreciate the support by Japan Meteorology Agency (JMA) and Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) in providing Himawari data. 

The Himawari satellite series offers a unique opportunity to monitor sub-daily processes on Earth and in its atmosphere over Asia and Oceania, due to its unprecedented 10-minute temporal resolution as well as improved spatial and spectral resolutions compared to the previous generations of Japanese geostationary satellites and sensors (i.e., MTSAT series) which Australian researchers are kindly provided access through a JMA-BoM agreement. This product provides a classification of the prevailing cloud on a pixel (~2 km) level, based on the OPAC (optical properties of aerosol and cloud) models. When there is no cloud a tentative classification of aerosol is provided. This product may be used together with the cloud / aerosol optical thickness product (HIM_CLD_Day_OD). 

As part of the cloud mask and properties collection, this product was generated using an algorithm independently developed by CSIRO based on a time-series analysis approach. Discussion of the algorithm can be found in Qin et al. (2019). Cloud type as seen by AHI. Cloud types are defined as the OPAC cloud types and are represented as integers here as listed below:

• 10 cirrus_-20
• 11 cirrus_-50
• 12 cirrus_-50_small
• 13 cumulus_cont_clean
• 14 cumulus_cont_poll
• 15 cumulus_maritime
• 16 fog
• 17 stratus_cont
• 18 stratus_maritime

See Qin et al. (2019) for full details.