GOES Cloud-clearing

Relaxing the 13.3 micron check (December 16, 1997)

On December 16, 1997 the Band 5 cloud-clearing check was relaxed to increase the number of clear samples.

GOES sounder BAND=8
GOES sounder BAND=5
GOES sounder TPW with the old '1 times the noise' test
GOES sounder TPW with the new '3 times the noise' test
GOES sounder CTP
GOES sounder Visible Band (four hours later)

There are a number of checks in the process of determining clear and cloudy fields of view. One such check looks at how much colder the individual fov's are than the warmest band 5 value within the processing box. As can be seen by looking at the 'old' derived product image of total precipitable water, this test was much too tight (too many cloudy boxes in clear regions). Relaxing this test to 3 times the noise results in a great reduction of questionable cloudy boxes.
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