Articles | Volume 26, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-5447-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-5447-2026
Research article
 | 
22 Apr 2026
Research article |  | 22 Apr 2026

CloudViT: exploring cloud type classification with vision transformers in global satellite data

Julien Lenhardt, Johannes Quaas, Dino Sejdinovic, and Daniel Klocke

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Cited articles

Ackerman, S. A. and Frey, R.: MODIS Atmosphere L2 Cloud Mask Product (35_L2), NASA MODIS Adaptive Processing System, Goddard Space Flight Center, https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD35_L2.061, 2017. 
Atito, S., Awais, M., and Kittler, J.: Sit: Self-supervised vision transformer, arXiv [preprint], https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2104.03602, 2021.  
Baum, B. A., Menzel, W. P., Frey, R. A., Tobin, D. C., Holz, R. E., Ackerman, S. A., Heidinger, A. K., and Yang, P.: MODIS Cloud-Top Property Refinements for Collection 6, J. Appl. Meteorol. Clim., 51, 1145–1163, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-11-0203.1, 2012. 
Bony, S., Semie, A., Kramer, R. J., Soden, B., Tompkins, A. M., and Emanuel, K. A.: Observed modulation of the tropical radiation budget by deep convective organization and lower-tropospheric stability, AGU Adv., Vol. 1, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019av000155, 2020. 
Boucher, O., Randall, D., Artaxo, P., Bretherton, C., Feingold, G., Forster, P., Kerminen, V.-M., Kondo, Y., Liao, H., Lohmann, U., Rasch, P., Satheesh, S. K., Sherwood, S., Stevens, B., and Zhang, X. Y.: Clouds and aerosols, Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis, Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 571–657, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.016, 2013. 
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Short summary
Clouds come in various shapes and sizes and constitute a fundamental element of the Earth's climate system. Different cloud types show variable impacts on climate change. We present a new cloud type classification method called CloudViT (Cloud Vision Transformer) relying on spatial patterns of cloud properties obtained from satellite data using machine learning. We can thus help understanding the effects of different cloud types on climate change.
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