ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-6-1905-2006 The semianalytical cloud retrieval algorithm for SCIAMACHY I. The validation Kokhanovsky A. A. 1 5 Rozanov V. V. 1 Nauss T. 2 Reudenbach C. 2 Daniel J. S. 3 Miller H. L. 3 4 Burrows J. P. 1 Institute of Remote Sensing, University of Bremen, Germany Department of Geography, University of Marburg, Germany Aeronomy Laboratory, NOAA, Boulder, Colorado, USA Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA Institute of Physics, 70 Skarina Avenue, Minsk, 220072, Belarus 01 06 2006 6 7 1905 1911 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/6/1905/2006/acp-6-1905-2006.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/6/1905/2006/acp-6-1905-2006.pdf

A recently developed cloud retrieval algorithm for the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) is briefly presented and validated using independent and well tested cloud retrieval techniques based on the look-up-table approach for MODeration resolutIon Spectrometer (MODIS) data. The results of the cloud top height retrievals using measurements in the oxygen A-band by an airborne crossed Czerny-Turner spectrograph and the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) instrument are compared with those obtained from airborne dual photography and retrievals using data from Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR-2), respectively.