A New Approach to Stereo Observations of Clouds

The Compact Midwave Imaging System (CMIS) under development as a NASA ESTO Instrument Incubator Program (IIP) project is designed as a small-size, -weight, and -power (SWaP) instrument suite that provides multi-spectral, multi-angle observations in the shortwave-midwave infrared (SWIR/MWIR) of clouds, aerosols, and other particulates. CMIS utilizes a high-operating temperature (HOT) focal plane array, which requires less cooling than traditional systems and thus less power so that individual units can be accommodated on CubeSats. The concept of operations for this instrument is to fly the imagers on two satellites in low-earth orbit about 10-15 minutes apart so that ambiguities in height assignment and along-track motions apparent in current earth-observing missions can be resolved. Airborne flight tests of the new instrument are scheduled for 2019. A key focus of the flight tests will be to evaluate the capability of the instrument to meet science objectives described in the 2017 Earth Science Decadal Survey for atmospheric motion vectors (AMVs) and cloud-top heights (CTHs) in the planetary boundary layer. We have developed a model to predict the accuracy and error characteristics of AMVs and CTHs retrieved by CMIS on airborne flights and from space. In this presentation, an overview of the CMIS instrument design, concept of operations, and predicted system performance will be presented.