Cloud Characteristics and Radiation Forcing in the Global Land Monsoon Region From Multisource Satellite Data Sets

Abstract The global land monsoon region has the highest land cloud amount in the world affecting two thirds of the world's population. Understanding the characteristics of cloud‐radiation relies heavily on satellite data set, while few studies have addressed the advantages and weaknesses of current existing satellite data sets in estimating the cloud‐radiation characteristics over global land monsoon regions. Multisource satellite data sets are used in this study to show the cloud characteristics in different monsoon regions. We find that all satellite data sets consistently show a peak of cloud fraction, cloud top height and cloud radiation forcing during summer over the global land monsoon regions. A regional difference in cloud characteristics is observed from multisource data sets. The seasonal cycle of cloud amount in the North American monsoon region is relatively smaller than that of the other monsoon regions. High‐level clouds dominate the North African monsoon, while Low‐level clouds dominate the Asian monsoon. The cloud properties and their radiative forcings revealed by four cloud‐parameter data sets with multispectral imagers, that is, International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP)‐D2, ISCCP‐H, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)‐MYD, and MODIS‐MOD, are similar to one another, except stronger short‐wave cloud radiative forcing in ISCCP‐FD. Multidata comparison confirmed the climate and seasonal cycles of cloud characteristics in this study, demonstrating a better representation of cloud vertical structure in CloudSat over global land monsoon region.