Information Content in the Oxygen A-Band for the Retrieval of Macrophysical Cloud Parameters

Current and future satellite sensors provide measurements in and around the oxygen A-band on a global basis. These data are commonly used for the determination of cloud and aerosol properties. In this paper, we assess the information content in the oxygen A-band for the retrieval of macrophysical cloud parameters using precise radiative transfer simulations covering a wide range of geophysical conditions in conjunction with advance inversion techniques. The information content of the signal with respect to the retrieved parameters is analyzed in a stochastic framework using two common criteria: the degrees of freedom for a signal and the Shannon information content. It is found that oxygen A-band measurements with moderate spectral resolution (0.2 nm) provide two pieces of independent information that allow the accurate retrieval of cloud-top height together with either cloud optical thickness or cloud fraction. Additionally, our results confirm previous studies indicating that the retrieval of cloud geometrical thickness (CGT) from single-angle measurements is not reliable in this spectral region. Finally, a sensitivity study shows that the retrieval of macrophysical cloud parameters is slightly sensitive to the uncertainty in the CGT and very sensitive to the uncertainty in the surface albedo.