Climatology and changes in cloud cover in the area of the Black, Caspian, and Aral seas (1991–2010): a comparison of surface observations with satellite and reanalysis products

This research was developed under the auspices of, and with funding from, the project ‘CLIMSEAS: Climate Change and Inland Seas: Phenomena, Feedbacks, and Uncertainties. The Physical Science Basis’, of the Seventh Framework Programme, European Union People-Marie Curie Actions, International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IRSES N. 247512). Several authors are involved within the project NUCLIERSOL (CGL2010-18546), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Aaron Enriquez-Alonso was given a grant from the FPI program (BES-2011-049095) of the same ministry. Arturo Sanchez-Lorenzo was supported by the ‘Secretaria per a Universitats i Recerca del Departament d'Economia i Coneixement, de la Generalitat de Catalunya i del programa Cofund de les Accions Marie Curie del 7e Programa marc d'R+D de la Unio Europea’ (2011 BP-B 00078) and the postdoctoral fellowship JCI-2012-12508. Partial support was provided to the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (№13-05-00562). The ISCCP-D2 data were obtained from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project web site (http://isccp.giss.nasa.gov), maintained by the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York. Data from EUMETSAT's Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF) were used. PATMOS-x data are available via ftp from the University of Wisconsin, Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC), and the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS). ERA-Interim data are supported by the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecast (ECMWF). NCEP Reanalysis data are provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR). Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), Physical Sciences Division (PSD) (http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/). MERRA files were obtained from the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center. CRU TS3.20 Time-Series (TS) of High Resolution Gridded Data were provided by the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit (CRU).