European climatology of fog and low stratus based on geostationary satellite observations

The distribution of fog and low stratus (FLS) is of importance in nowcasting, aviation forecasting and climate applications. This paper presents satellite-derived FLS maps as a basis for building a European FLS climatology with high spatial and temporal resolution. Averaged maps covering several winter seasons of Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) data are analysed and compared to a cloud climatology based on a 26-year record of ground-based visual cloud observations. The general patterns seen in both products are found to be in good agreement and plausible. Copyright (C) 2009 Royal Meteorological Society