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A Marshak

Publications and source records attributed to A Marshak.

5 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2022

Editorial: DSCOVR EPIC/NISTAR: 5Years of Observing Earth From the First Lagrangian Point

The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) was launched in February 2015 to a Sun-Earth Lagrange-1 (L1) orbit, approximately 1.5 million kilometers from the sunlit side of the Earth. In many regards, the DSCOVR is a unique mission: for the first time, it delivers well-calibrated and multi-spectral measurements of Earth from the L1 point. This unique location allows near-hourly views of the entire illuminated disk of the Earth, multiple times a day. The moderately high observational cadence results in cloud-free views of nearly the entire Earth land surface and global ocean with significantly higher frequency than is available to the operational polar orbiters, and at a near-global scale inaccessible to geostationary sensors.

EPIC↗
NASA NTRS2021

Global Daytime Variability of Clouds from DSCOVR/EPIC Observations

Knowledge of the daytime variability of cloud fraction is pivotal for the accurate determination of the atmosphere's energy balance. Yet, polar orbiting satellites are unable to fully capture daytime variability and individual geostationary satellites only provide measurements for portions of the Earth. In addition, diurnal cloud fraction variations analyzed with General Circulation Models provide results that cannot be reconciled with observations in many situations. Here we show that the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) aboard the DSCOVR satellite presents a unique opportunity to examine changes in daytime global cloud fraction resolved at one-hour frequency. For the first time, we characterize the global daytime variability of clouds with a single sensor, presenting evidence that the fraction of liquid clouds reaches its maximum over continental areas and its minimum over ocean around noon. We compare our results with previous global and regional studies and examine implications for the Earth's energy budget.

cloud fraction↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Global Daily Variability of Cloud Amount from EPIC Observations

EPIC’s vantage point provide a unique opportunity to study the global daytime variability of clouds using a single sensor for the first time. We demonstrate that liquid clouds have opposite daytime evolution between land and ocean, reaching a maximum and minimum around noon, respectively. On the contrary, daytime evolution of ice clouds is independent of the type of underlying surface, with higher values in the morning and afternoon and minimum around noon. Our results are presented with an unprecedent spatial and temporal view of these changes for the whole planet.

clouds↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Update on EPIC MAIAC V2 Algorithm: Atmospheric Correction

Alexei Lyapustin presented a new v2 MAIAC atmospheric correction algorithm for EPIC. The v2 algorithm introduced new projection removing spatial distortions, a more accurate retrieval of spectral surface reflectance using ancillary MAIAC MODIS BRDF dataset, and a new technique for simultaneous retrieval of aerosol optical depth and spectral absorption. AERONET validation shows that v2 significantly improved AOD accuracy compared to v1, while the retrieved single scattering albedo in the Blue shows a very good accuracy comparable to that of AERONET for both biomass burning smoke and mineral dust aerosols.

Alexei Lyapustin↗