Are the Cloud-Top Heights Retrieved From GOES-16/ABI and GOES-17/ABI Consistent?

The U.S. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites GOES-16 and GOES-17 provide cloud-top height (CTH) data. A fusion model combining their CTH is vital for global high-resolution weather forecasting and climate analysis. However, ensuring a high degree of consistency between CTH from GOES-16 and GOES-17 is essential for building an effective CTH fusion model. In this article, a consistency analysis was conducted on the CTH in regions where GOES-16/ABI and GOES-17/ABI observations overlap. Results show that the CTH of GOES-16 and GOES-17 exhibits a small mean error (ME) and high correlation, but between 9:30 and 15:00 [universal time coordinated (UTC)], the ME, standard deviation (Std), and root mean square error (RMSE) are significantly larger than those during other periods, with the maximum values occurring between approximately 12:00 and 14:00. The difference in Satellite viewing zenith angle ( $\Delta $ VZA) at the same observation pixel had an impact on the CTH consistency. The larger $\Delta $ VZA is, the larger are ME, Std, and RMSE. The increase in ME of between the two CTH from 9:30 to 15:00 was related to the difference in radiance of the 12.3 and $13.3~\mu $ m channel, while the increase in Std was related to the difference in radiance of the $13.3~\mu $ m. It is due to anomalies in the channel radiance observations caused by the degradation of the imager’s performance by solar radiation exposure during this period. The fusion of GOES-16 and GOES-17 CTH data needs to take into consideration the differences in VZA and the data quality control between 9:30 and 15:00.