ABOVE, The AIRS BBAERI Ocean Validation Experiment: Overview and Initial Results
Abstract
To provide correlative measurements characterizing the atmosphere and sea surface over the ocean for validation of NASA's Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) onboard the Aqua satellite, a complementary set of instruments was deployed to the United States Coast Guard (USCG) Chesapeake Light lighthouse platform. Located 25 km due east of Virginia Beach, VA, Chesapeake Light offers a relatively convenient site for measurements over the ocean while being far enough offshore for water only AIRS fields of view. Instruments deployed for AIRS forward model and radiance validation during August, September, and October, 2002, include the UMBC Baltimore Bomem Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (BBAERI), the UMBC Elastic Lidar Facility (ELF), and Vaisala RS-90 rawinsondes. BBAERI provides profiling of the boundary layer and SST determination at 10 minute intervals 24-hours a day, as well as CO and O3 tropospheric abundances. ELF provides profiles of aerosols and clouds up to 15 km at one minute resolution for 1-2 hours before and after each Aqua overpasse. Approximately 100 Rawinsondes were flown during the ABOVE deployment providing full atmospheric profiles of temperature and moisture up to at least 100 mb for virtually every Aqua overpass. Preliminary comparisons of ABOVE data products to AIRS observations and retrievals will be presented.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2002
- Bibcode:
- 2002AGUFM.A52A0083M
- Keywords:
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- 0300 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE;
- 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345;
- 4801);
- 0365 Troposphere: composition and chemistry;
- 0368 Troposphere: constituent transport and chemistry;
- 0394 Instruments and techniques