The AMSR2 Columnar Cloud Liquid Water (Night) layer indicates the depth of the total liquid water in a cloud within a vertical column of atmosphere over the ocean, measured in millimeters (mm). It does not include solid water such as snow or ice. Cloud water can have a positive and a negative effect on the climate. It can cause a warming greenhouse effect by trapping heat near the Earth’s surface as well as a cooling effect by increasing the Earth’s albedo (reflection of incoming solar energy back into space).

The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) instrument is a conically scanning passive microwave radiometer sensing microwave radiation at 12 channels and 6 frequencies ranging from 6.9 to 89 GHz on board the Global Change Observation Mission - Water 1 (GCOM-W1) satellite. This layer is part of the GCOM-W1 AMSR2 Level-2B rain and ocean (combined) product, which is calculated by the Goddard PROFiling algorithm (GPROF) 2010 version 2 using resampled brightness temperature (Level-1R) data provided by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The imagery resolution is 2 km and sensor resolution is 5 km. The temporal resolution is daily.

References: NRT AMSR2 L2B Global Swath GSFC Profiling Algorithm 2010; Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) and GCOM-W (AMSR2) Rainfall Products