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At least 1,387 records · Page 77

Climate Variability during the TRMM Era: Relationships between TRMM Precipitation and Upper-Tropospheric Hydrometeors

Tropical rainfall as seen by the TRMM radar has multiple scales of organization, one prominent example of which is mesoscale deep convection that supports the production of strong, widespread anvil systems important to the planet's water and energy balance. TRMM PR precipitation retrievals (i.e. the 2A25 algorithm) are reliable down to rates below 1.0 mm/h which captures the majority of near-surface rainfall. However, much of the precipitating hydrometeor mass above the freezing level in these anvil systems may be associated with particles where TRMM PR s/n is low. In out analysis we are examining the question of 'What portions of the total hydrometeor spectrum can we see individually with TRMM, CloudSat, high frequency passive microwave (e.g. AMSU-B, MHS) and MODIS'. This will allow us to pursue fundamental issues of precipitation, efficiency, maintenance of upper-troposheric humidity, and cloud forcing variability in the tropical climate system. We do this by generating frequency distributions of ice water content (IWC), integrated IWC (IWP), and precipitation as appropriate for these sensors and relate these to TRMM near-surface rainfall. Joint frequency distributions are developed from more limited coincidence between TRMM and these sensors. We interpret these results in terms of a climate regime descriptor and as an index of precipitation efficiency for tropical rain systems.

Robertson, Franklin↗

Non-invasive Optical End-to-End Test of a Large TMA Telescope (JWST) from the Intermediate Focus

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) requires testing of the full optical system in a cryogenic vacuum environment before launch. Challenges with the telescope architecture and the test environment lead to placing removable optical test sources at the Cassegrain intermediate focus of the Telescope. The Science Instrument suite will be used to align the telescope and to verify the wavefront error. The Science Instruments capture test images that are analyzed using focus diverse phase retrieval. The wavefront sensing algorithms have the large dynamic range required to measure the relatively small wavefronts of interest in the presence of the large aberrations resulting from the off-axis source locations at the intermediate focus. These inherent aberrations of the off-axis design are removed analytically from the measured data. The test design and in-situ wavefront sensing process enables a number of tests to verify the alignment and optical quality of the system.

Whitman, Tony↗

Processing AIRS Scientific Data Through Level 2

The Atmospheric Infrared Spectrometer (AIRS) Science Processing System (SPS) is a collection of computer programs, denoted product generation executives (PGEs), for processing the readings of the AIRS suite of infrared and microwave instruments orbiting the Earth aboard NASA s Aqua spacecraft. AIRS SPS at an earlier stage of development was described in "Initial Processing of Infrared Spectral Data' (NPO-35243), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 28, No. 11 (November 2004), page 39. To recapitulate: Starting from level 0 (representing raw AIRS data), the PGEs and their data products are denoted by alphanumeric labels (1A, 1B, and 2) that signify the successive stages of processing. The cited prior article described processing through level 1B (the level-2 PGEs were not yet operational). The level-2 PGEs, which are now operational, receive packages of level-1B geolocated radiance data products and produce such geolocated geophysical atmospheric data products such as temperature and humidity profiles. The process of computing these geophysical data products is denoted "retrieval" and is quite complex. The main steps of the process are denoted microwave-only retrieval, cloud detection and cloud clearing, regression, full retrieval, and rapid transmittance algorithm.

Oliphant, Robert↗

Application of Reflected Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS-R) Signals in the Estimation of Sea Roughness Effects in Microwave Radiometry

In February-March 2009 NASA JPL conducted an airborne field campaign using the Passive Active L-band System (PALS) and the Ku-band Polarimetric Scatterometer (PolSCAT) collecting measurements of brightness temperature and near surface wind speeds. Flights were conducted over a region of expected high-speed winds in the Atlantic Ocean, for the purposes of algorithm development for salinity retrievals. Wind speeds encountered were in the range of 5 to 25 m/s during the two weeks deployment. The NASA-Langley GPS delay-mapping receiver (DMR) was also flown to collect GPS signals reflected from the ocean surface and generate post-correlation power vs. delay measurements. This data was used to estimate ocean surface roughness and a strong correlation with brightness temperature was found. Initial results suggest that reflected GPS signals, using small low-power instruments, will provide an additional source of data for correcting brightness temperature measurements for the purpose of sea surface salinity retrievals.

Voo, Justin K.↗

Atmospheric Correction of Satellite Ocean-Color Imagery During the PACE Era

The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission will carry into space the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI), a spectrometer measuring at 5 nm spectral resolution in the ultraviolet (UV) to near infrared (NIR) with additional spectral bands in the shortwave infrared (SWIR), and two multi-angle polarimeters that will overlap the OCI spectral range and spatial coverage, i. e., the Spectrometer for Planetary Exploration (SPEXone) and the Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (HARP2). These instruments, especially when used in synergy, have great potential for improving estimates of water reflectance in the post Earth Observing System (EOS) era. Extending the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) observations to the UV, where aerosol absorption is effective, adding spectral bands in the SWIR, where even the most turbid waters are black and sensitivity to the aerosol coarse mode is higher than at shorter wavelengths, and measuring in the oxygen A-band to estimate aerosol altitude will enable greater accuracy in atmospheric correction for ocean color science. The multi-angular and polarized measurements, sensitive to aerosol properties (e.g., size distribution, index of refraction), can further help to identify or constrain the aerosol model, or to retrieve directly water reflectance. Algorithms that exploit the new capabilities are presented, and their ability to improve accuracy is discussed. They embrace a modern, adapted heritage two-step algorithm and alternative schemes (deterministic, statistical) that aim at inverting the TOA signal in a single step. These schemes, by the nature of their construction, their robustness, their generalization properties, and their ability to associate uncertainties, are expected to become the new standard in the future. A strategy for atmospheric correction is presented that ensures continuity and consistency with past and present ocean-color missions while enabling full exploitation of the new dimensions and possibilities. Despite the major improvements anticipated with the PACE instruments, gaps/issues remain to be filled/tackled. They include dealing properly with whitecaps, taking into account Earth-curvature effects, correcting for adjacency effects, accounting for the coupling between scattering and absorption, modeling accurately water reflectance, and acquiring a sufficiently representative dataset of water reflectance in the UV to SWIR. Dedicated efforts, experimental and theoretical, are in order to gather the necessary information and rectify inadequacies. Ideas and solutions are put forward to address the unresolved issues. Thanks to its design and characteristics, the PACE mission will mark the beginning of a new era of unprecedented accuracy in ocean-color radiometry from space.

Robert J Frouin↗

The Aerosol Characterization from Polarimeter and Lidar (ACEPOL) airborne field campaign

In the fall of 2017, an airborne field campaign was conducted from the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California, to advance the remote sensing of aerosols and clouds with multi-angle polarimeters (MAP) and lidars. The Aerosol Characterization from Polarimeter and Lidar (ACEPOL) campaign was jointly sponsored by NASA and the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON). Six instruments were deployed on the ER-2 high-altitude aircraft. Four were MAPs: the Airborne Hyper Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (AirHARP), the Airborne Multiangle SpectroPolarimetric Imager (AirMSPI), the Airborne Spectrometer for Planetary EXploration (SPEX airborne), and the Research Scanning Polarimeter (RSP). The remainder were lidars, including the Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) and the High Spectral Resolution Lidar 2 (HSRL-2). The southern California base of ACEPOL enabled observation of a wide variety of scene types, including urban, desert, forest, coastal ocean, and agricultural areas, with clear, cloudy, polluted, and pristine atmospheric conditions. Flights were performed in coordination with satellite overpasses and ground-based observations, including the Ground-based Multiangle SpectroPolarimetric Imager (GroundMSPI), sun photometers, and a surface reflectance spectrometer.

SPECTRAL-RESOLUTION LIDAR↗

Validation of Satellite-Based Precipitation Products from TRMM to GPM

The global precipitation measurement mission (GPM) has been in operation for seven years and continues to provide a vast quantity of global precipitation data at finer temporospatial resolutions with improved accuracy and coverage. GPM’s signature algorithm, the integrated multisatellite retrievals for GPM (IMERG) is a next-generation of precipitation product expected for wide variety of research and operational applications. This study evaluates the latest version (V06B) of IMERG and its predecessor, the tropical rainfall measuring mission (TRMM) multisatellite precipitation (TMPA) 3B42 (V7) using ground-based and gauge-corrected multiradar multisensor system (MRMS) precipitation products over the conterminous United States (CONUS). The spatial distributions of all products are analyzed. The error characteristics are further examined for 3B42 and IMERG in winter and summer by an error decomposition approach, which partitions total bias into hit bias, biases due to missed precipitation and false precipitation. The volumetric and categorical statistical metrics are used to quantitatively evaluate the performance of the two satellite-based products. All products show a similar precipitation climatology with some regional differences. The two satellite-based products perform better in the eastern CONUS than in the mountainous Western CONUS. The evaluation demonstrates the clear improvement in IMERG precipitation product in comparison with its predecessor 3B42, especially in reducing missed precipitation in winter and summer, and hit bias in winter, resulting in better performance in capturing lighter and heavier precipitation.

MRMS↗

Spectral Fidelity of Earth's Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems

The Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) investigation will create global maps of spectral surface reflectance and emissivity at a cadence of 16 days or better, with coverage to address global questions about Earth's geology, cryosphere and ecosystems. The revolutionary potential poses a commensurate challenge: creating contiguous maps free from regional biases induced by atmosphere, observation geometry, or inversion error. This will require an accurate calibration with precise knowledge of each channel's spectral response. Here, we quantify the impact of spectral calibration on SBG's aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem objectives. We find that contemporary algorithms for ecosystem trait retrieval demand more accurate spectral calibration than historical missions. Errors due to drift or spatial nonuniformity in the wavelength calibration that have previously been considered acceptable can cause systematic errors larger than the instrument noise and of the same order as the variability SBG aims to measure. Moreover, their impact on atmospheric correction can induce climate-dependent systematic errors that thwart comparisons between ecosystems. These results underscore the importance of spectral response accuracy in SBG mission design.

imaging spectroscopy↗

Where IMERG Goes Next: Version 08 and Beyond

With the Version 07 (V07) Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) algorithm finalized and production initiated, the focus turns to enhancements for Version 08. These include innovations not included in V07 due to time constraints, plus issues revealed by the initial V07 products. One high priority is to evaluate and revise the schemes in V07 that rectify temporal artifacts caused by the time interpolation that fills the gaps between the various passive microwave (PMW) sensor overpasses. A second priority is to improve the homogeneity between the TRMM and GPM eras by characterizing differences between the two eras, determining the causes of these differences, and applying corrections as feasible, perhaps by enforcing spatial scale consistency (an overarching issue). Certainly, we must account for GPROF and the Combined Radar-Radiometer Algorithm converting to Machine Learning schemes in V08. Other priority topics include additional automated quality control for artifacts in the IR brightness temperatures and PMW precipitation fields, revisions to the specification algorithm for the probability of liquid precipitation, and accommodating new PMW sensors, which include the next generation of small-sats. We also consider the post-V08 landscape; the final GPM reprocessing will be restricted to fixing known code or algorithmic errors. Nonetheless, there are several data sources on the horizon to consider, including more small-sat PMW radiometers, AVHRR-based precipitation estimates (most useful in high latitudes), and the ISCCP-Next Generation and GEO-Ring projects that could provide easy access to multiple geosynchronous satellite channels and enable significantly improved algorithms compared to GEO-IR alone.

George J. Huffman↗

Creating Near Real-time Hourly VIIRS Radiance Mosaic over Polar Regions from SatCORPS Global Cloud Composite (GCC)

While polar orbiting satellites are essential in providing the needed observations over polar regions for data assimilation, weather diagnoses/forecasting, and flight guidance and situation awareness in airborne field campaigns, there is limited temporal coverage. Often, polar mosaics are created by overlaying multiple satellite imagers on top of each other which can lead to transition lines and discontinuities in the data products. To help ease some of these shortcomings, we utilize the NASA Langley Satellite ClOud and Radiation Property retrieval System (SatCORPS) Mosaic algorithm for optimally fusing and merging selected imager radiances from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument onboard the Suomi National polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP), Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1), and JPSS-2 satellites, and the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments onboard AQUA and TERRA satellites. Since multiple satellites overpasses and instruments are used in creating hourly 3-km composites over the polar regions, selection of the best satellite data for each 3-km composite pixel is based on aggregated ranking of satellite resolution, time, viewing zenith angle, and distance from terminator. This ranking system provides a smoother transition and improves data discontinuity in the merged output resulting in a more seamless polar region dataset. We will discuss the use of this near real-time dataset to support polar airborne field campaigns and SatCORPS satellite-derived Global Cloud Composite (GCC) generation.

Satellite composites↗

AI/ML Expo Boosting Job Performance with AI: Innovative Approaches and Success Stories

Our technology leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the user experience in High Performance Computing (HPC) environments. By analyzing user behavior and providing personalized recommendations, our AI system helps HPC users optimize their workflows and improve productivity. Additionally, we offer an advanced image similarity search feature, which utilizes AI algorithms to identify and retrieve visually similar images, saving users valuable time and effort in their research and analysis.

97 - MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

AMSR2 Soil Moisture Product Validation

The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) is part of the Global Change Observation Mission-Water (GCOM-W) mission. AMSR2 fills the void left by the loss of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) after almost 10 years. Both missions provide brightness temperature observations that are used to retrieve soil moisture. Merging AMSR-E and AMSR2 will help build a consistent long-term dataset. Before tackling the integration of AMSR-E and AMSR2 it is necessary to conduct a thorough validation and assessment of the AMSR2 soil moisture products. This study focuses on validation of the AMSR2 soil moisture products by comparison with in situ reference data from a set of core validation sites. Three products that rely on different algorithms were evaluated; the JAXA Soil Moisture Algorithm (JAXA), the Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM), and the Single Channel Algorithm (SCA). Results indicate that overall the SCA has the best performance based upon the metrics considered.

microwave↗

Profile shape dependence in backscattered ultraviolet satellite retrievals of total ozone

Total ozone operational algorithms use climatological mean ozone profiles. When the actual ozone profiles have significantly different shapes versus the climatology and the solar zenith angles are large, retrieved total ozone will have an error. Recalibrated SBUV profiles are used to estimate this error. Preliminary results suggest that, on the average, the change and variation in significant profiles shapes can to a large degree be estimated by the SBUV derived profiles. Preliminary results suggest the average error in the report algorithm ozone trend (trend in reported ozone) from profile shape is relatively small during the north hemisphere winter (less than 2 percent) for solar zenith angles less than 82 degrees (for 60 degrees North Latitude).

Taylor, S. L.↗

Effect of stratospheric aerosol on ozone profile from BUV measurements

Results of a simulation study on the effects of optically thick stratospheric sulfate aerosol layers on the backscattered ultraviolet radiation (buv) in the range 256-340 nm are presented. In general, the increased Mie scattering produced by the aerosols results in an enhancement of the buv radiation. The increase is approximately linear with optical depth and strongly depends on solar zenith angle and aerosol layer altitude in relation to the ozone maximum. The effect is greatest at those wavelenghts whose contribution functions peak in the vicinity of the densest part of the aerosol layer. The aerosol induced perturbation of the buv field affects the ozone profile retrieval from space measurements by the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Experiment (SBUV) experiment. In the tropical stratosphere, the retrieved ozone between 25 and 45 km is underestimated as a result of increased Mie scattering. On the other hand, an algorithm related effect causes the retrieved ozone below 25 km to be overestimated by an amount similar to the stratospheric deficit.

Torres, Omar↗

Ten Years of Cloud Optical and Microphysical Retrievals from MODIS

The MODIS cloud optical properties algorithm (MOD06/MYD06 for Terra and Aqua MODIS, respectively) has undergone extensive improvements and enhancements since the launch of Terra. These changes have included: improvements in the cloud thermodynamic phase algorithm; substantial changes in the ice cloud light scattering look up tables (LUTs); a clear-sky restoral algorithm for flagging heavy aerosol and sunglint; greatly improved spectral surface albedo maps, including the spectral albedo of snow by ecosystem; inclusion of pixel-level uncertainty estimates for cloud optical thickness, effective radius, and water path derived for three error sources that includes the sensitivity of the retrievals to solar and viewing geometries. To improve overall retrieval quality, we have also implemented cloud edge removal and partly cloudy detection (using MOD35 cloud mask 250m tests), added a supplementary cloud optical thickness and effective radius algorithm over snow and sea ice surfaces and over the ocean, which enables comparison with the "standard" 2.1 11m effective radius retrieval, and added a multi-layer cloud detection algorithm. We will discuss the status of the MOD06 algorithm and show examples of pixellevel (Level-2) cloud retrievals for selected data granules, as well as gridded (Level-3) statistics, notably monthly means and histograms (lD and 2D, with the latter giving correlations between cloud optical thickness and effective radius, and other cloud product pairs).

Platnick, Steven↗

Retrieval of the sea spray aerosol mode from submicron particle size distributions and supermicron scattering during LASIC

Abstract. Improved quantification of sea spray aerosol concentration and size is important for determining aerosol effects on clouds and the climate, though attempts to accurately capture the size distribution of the sea spray mode remain limited by the availability of supermicron size distributions. In this work, we introduce a new approach to retrieving lognormal mode fit parameters for a sea spray aerosol mode by combining submicron size distributions with supermicron scattering measurements using a Mie inversion. Submicron size distributions were measured by an ultra-high-sensitivity aerosol spectrometer (UHSAS), and supermicron scattering was taken as the difference between <10 µm and <1 µm three-wavelength integrating nephelometer measurements (NEPH). This UHSAS-NEPH method was applied during background marine periods of the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Layered Atlantic Smoke Interactions with Clouds (LASIC) campaign on Ascension Island (November 2016–May 2017), when the contribution of sea spray aerosol was expected to represent a large fraction of the aerosol mass and total scattering. Lognormal sea spray modal parameters were retrieved from comparisons between nephelometer measurements and a lookup table of Mie theory-simulated scattering coefficients for low-error solutions that minimized the 0.4–1 µm residual in the UHSAS size distribution. We evaluated the UHSAS-NEPH method with a set of clean marine measurements in the North Atlantic that included supermicron size and chemical measurements, showing that measured supermicron size distributions are needed to constrain the sea spray number concentration but that mass concentration was reasonably characterized using supermicron scattering. For LASIC, the UHSAS-NEPH method retrieved sea spray mode properties for approximately 88 % of the background marine times when the scattering variability and total particle concentration were low (<± 5 Mm−1 and <400 cm−3, respectively), with mass mean diameter ranging from 0.6 to 1.9 µm (1.47 ± 0.17 µm), modal width ranging from 1.1 to 3.97 (2.4±0.3), and mass concentration ranging from 0.18 to 23.0 µg m−3 (8.37. ± 4.1 µg m−3). The measured nephelometer scattering at three wavelengths was found to constrain the mode width marginally at the largest particle sizes in the absence of additional size and chemical measurements for defining parameters for the Mie solutions. Comparing UHSAS-NEPH retrievals to those of a fitting algorithm applied only to the submicron UHSAS number size distribution showed that correlations between retrieved mass concentration and the available mass-based sea spray tracers (coarse scattering, wind speed, and chloride) are low when supermicron measurements are not considered. This work demonstrates the added value of supermicron scattering measurements for retrieving reasonable sea spray mass concentrations, providing the best-available observationally constrained estimate of the sea spray mode properties when supermicron size distribution measurements are not available.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Physical Retrieval of Surface Emissivity Spectrum from Hyperspectral Infrared Radiances

Retrieval of temperature, moisture profiles and surface skin temperature from hyperspectral infrared (IR) radiances requires spectral information about the surface emissivity. Using constant or inaccurate surface emissivities typically results in large retrieval errors, particularly over semi-arid or arid areas where the variation in emissivity spectrum is large both spectrally and spatially. In this study, a physically based algorithm has been developed to retrieve a hyperspectral IR emissivity spectrum simultaneously with the temperature and moisture profiles, as well as the surface skin temperature. To make the solution stable and efficient, the hyperspectral emissivity spectrum is represented by eigenvectors, derived from the laboratory measured hyperspectral emissivity database, in the retrieval process. Experience with AIRS (Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder) radiances shows that a simultaneous retrieval of the emissivity spectrum and the sounding improves the surface skin temperature as well as temperature and moisture profiles, particularly in the near surface layer.

Li, Jun↗

Multi-sensor Cloud Retrieval Simulator and Remote Sensing from Model Parameters : Synthetic Sensor Radiance Formulation - Pt. 1

In this paper we describe a general procedure for calculating synthetic sensor radiances from variable output from a global atmospheric forecast model. In order to take proper account of the discrepancies between model resolution and sensor footprint, the algorithm takes explicit account of the model subgrid variability, in particular its description of the probability density function of total water (vapor and cloud condensate.) The simulated sensor radiances are then substituted into an operational remote sensing algorithm processing chain to produce a variety of remote sensing products that would normally be produced from actual sensor output. This output can then be used for a wide variety of purposes such as model parameter verification, remote sensing algorithm validation, testing of new retrieval methods and future sensor studies.We show a specific implementation using the GEOS-5 model, the MODIS instrument and the MODIS Adaptive Processing System (MODAPS) Data Collection 5.1 operational remote sensing cloud algorithm processing chain (including the cloud mask, cloud top properties and cloud optical and microphysical properties products). We focus on clouds because they are very important to model development and improvement.

Simulations↗