Exploring Spatial and Temporal Sampling Capabilities of Candidate Aerosol Observing System Architectures Using the Goddard Earth Observing System, Version 5, Nature Run (G5NR)

The 2017-2027 Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from Space designated new satellite measurements to answer important questions related to the roles of Aerosols and Clouds, Convection, and Precipitation (A-CCP) within the climate system. The likely aerosol-focused instruments will include a multi-spectral/multi-angular polarimeter and a lidar. The precise configuration of these instruments—to include the instrument characteristics, their platform and orbit, and even the number of instruments/platforms deployed—is still to be determined. To support the larger A-CCP decadal survey study we are evaluating the capabilities of notional aerosol sensor characteristics and configurations. Here we explore particularly the spatial and temporal sampling characteristics of candidate architectures for the A-CCP mission. We use the high-spatial resolution (~7 km) aerosol simulation produced by the Goddard Earth Observing System, version 5, Nature Run (G5NR) global Earth system model as an analogue for the true atmospheric, surface, and aerosol state. We sample the model output with for candidate orbital configurations, including precessing and polar orbits, and instrument swaths (polarimeter) using two-line element (TLE) orbital descriptors from existing satellite platforms or developed by our group. In this study we explore the capability of these candidate architectures to sample the "true" aerosol field (using model-derived aerosol optical depth and aerosol radiative forcing as proxies for the aerosol state), considering spatial and temporal coverage of the candidate observing system architectures and their synergy with other anticipated observing systems (e.g., JPSS).