Himawari-8 GeoCat 1.0.3 Australian Domain Level 2

This dataset contains derived satellite observations of cloud properties over the Australian region at hourly temporal resolution and 2 km spatial resolution. The Himawari-8 CSPPGeo Geocat collection Level-2 (L2) grid is on 2 km of horizontal resolution that includes Australia and the Maritime Continent. The L2 product include full output variables from CSPP-Geo Geocat and Advance Himawari Imagery on Himawari-8, 25, and 41 variables, respectively, with hourly temporal resolution for Austral summer months (Nov-March) from 01 November 2015 to 31 March 2020.

This dataset is produced using the Geostationary Cloud Algorithm Testbed (Geocat) together with pre-processed ancillary data. The tool used to apply Geocat is described here: http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/csppgeo/geocat.html.

The input data are Himawari-8 AHI retrievals v1.3, freely available from the Japanese Meteorological Agency. Meteorological Satellite Centre of JMA: https://www.data.jma.go.jp/mscweb/en/himawari89/space_segment/sample_hisd.html

Information on the ancillary data is available in the readme file.

L2 product includes the following variables:

Cloud albedo

Cloud Optical Depth

Cloud Phase

Cloud Type

Low Cloud and Fog

Cloud Particle Size Distribution

Cloud Top Height

Cloud Top Pressure

Cloud Top Temperature

Cloud Liquid Water Path

Cloud Ice Water Path

Clear Sky Masks

These variables are derived using the following algorithms:

ACHA - ABI Cloud Height Algorithm

DCOMP - Daytime Cloud Optical and Microphysical Properties

NCOMP - Nighttime Cloud Optical and Microphysical Properties

This dataset is a product of the Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes Extreme rainfall research program.