Seasonal and regional variability of cloud liquid water path in northwestern China derived from MODIS/CERES observations

This article describes the seasonal and regional variability of cloud liquid water path (LWP) in northwestern China. The regions of interest are: the area influenced by the Asian monsoon, the Tianshan Mountains, the Qilian Mountains and the Taklimakan Desert. The results presented here were derived from the instantaneous observations of cloud LWP from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Edition 1B data from July 2002 to June 2004, and reflect more detailed subregional features than previous results from International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) D2 monthly mean data. The seasonal and annual variation in cloud LWP is found to be significant in northwestern China, even within the same climate region.