Since the first Global Energy and Water Exchanges cloud assessment a decade ago, existing cloud property retrievals have been revised and new retrievals have been developed. The new global long-term cloud datasets show, in general, similar results to those of the previous assessment. A notable exception is the reduced cloud amount provided by the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) Science Team, resulting from an improved aerosol–cloud distinction. Height, opacity and thermodynamic phase determine the radiative effect of clouds. Their distributions as well as relative occurrences of cloud types distinguished by height and optical depth are discussed. The similar results of the two assessments indicate that further improvement, in particular on vertical cloud layering, can only be achieved by combining complementary information. We suggest such combination methods to estimate the amount of all clouds within the atmospheric column, including those hidden by clouds aloft. The results compare well with those from CloudSat-CALIPSO radar–lidar geometrical profiles as well as with results from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) corrected by the cloud vertical layer model, which is used for the computation of the ISCCP-derived radiative fluxes. Furthermore, we highlight studies on cloud monitoring using the information from the histograms of the database and give guidelines for: (1) the use of satellite-retrieved cloud properties in climate studies and climate model evaluation and (2) improved retrieval strategies.

自十年前首次全球能源和水交换云评估以来，现有的云属性检索已得到修订，并开发了新的检索。总的来说，新的全球长期云数据集显示的结果与之前的评估类似。一个值得注意的例外是云-气溶胶激光雷达和红外探路者卫星观测 (CALIPSO) 科学团队提供的云量减少，这是由于气溶胶-云区别的改进所致。高度、不透明度和热力学相位决定了云的辐射效应。讨论了它们的分布以及按高度和光学深度区分的云类型的相对出现情况。两次评估的相似结果表明，只有通过结合互补信息才能实现进一步的改进，特别是在垂直云分层方面。我们建议采用这种组合方法来估计大气柱内所有云的数量，包括那些被高空云隐藏的云。结果与 CloudSat-CALIPSO 雷达-激光雷达几何剖面的结果以及由云垂直层模型校正的国际卫星云气候学项目 (ISCCP) 的结果进行了很好的比较，该模型用于计算 ISCCP 导出的辐射通量。此外，我们重点介绍了使用数据库直方图信息进行云监测的研究，并给出了以下指导原则：（1）在气候研究和气候模型评估中使用卫星检索的云特性；（2）改进检索策略。