Do aerosols influence surface and satellite observations of total cloud cover over China

In this study, we tested the influence of aerosols on surface and satellite observations of total cloud cover (TCC). The surface-observed TCC (TCC_sur) and satellite-retrieved TCC (TCC_sat) shows a good agreement over China and difference between them (TCC_DIFF) are mostly within the -10% to 10% range. The monthly mean TCC_DIFF, AOD and visibility have a consistent spatial pattern and the negative TCC_DIFF appears mostly in high AOD and low visibility regions. As expected, TCC difference would increase as aerosol loading increases. We found that for negative TCC_DIFF (MODIS reports more clouds than Synop), both the frequency and range increase as the AOD increases from 0 to 0.8. Compared with the positive TCC_DIFF, negative ones show a more clear relation with aerosol loading. When the aerosol loading increases, there are more significant difference cases with TCC_DIFF less than -20%.