Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Exploring the differences in cloud properties observed by the Terra and Aqua MODIS Sensors

Abstract. The aerosol-cloud interaction in different parts of the globe is examined here using multi-year statistics of remotely sensed data from two MODIS sensors aboard NASA’s Terra (morning) and Aqua (afternoon) satellites. Simultaneous retrievals of aerosol loadings and cloud proper-ties by the MODIS sensor allowed us to explore morning-to-afternoon variation of liquid cloud fraction (CF) and optical thickness (COT) for clean, moderately polluted and heavily polluted clouds in different seasons. Data analysis for seven-years of MODIS retrievals revealed strong temporal and spa-tial patterns in morning-to-afternoon variation of cloud frac-tion and optical thickness over different parts of the global oceans and the land. For the vast areas of stratocumulus cloud regions, the data shows that the days with elevated aerosol abundance were also associated with enhanced af