Science Performance Comparison Between a Spaceborne HSRL and CALIOP
Abstract
NASA operates airborne and spaceborne lidar systems to answer aerosol and cloud related science questions. NASA Langley Research Center has extensive experience operating lidar systems in both regimes. These include High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) systems, which have been operating on airborne platforms, and CALIOP, the spaceborne elastic backscatter lidar system on board CALIPSO. In support of NASA's ACCP Study Plan to address the Aerosol (A) and Cloud, Convection, and Precipitation (CCP) Designated Observables called out in the 2017 Earth Science Decadal Survey, LaRC is using a comprehensive set of lidar simulation tools to evaluate the performance of spaceborne systems using both the HSRL and elastic backscatter techniques. The LaRC high-fidelity simulator ingests instrument specifications (either HSRL or elastic backscatter), along with all relevant characteristics of the atmospheric scene being observed. By in-depth modeling of each component in both the transmitter and the receiver, including all gains, transmission loses, and noise sources, the LaRC simulator generates synthetic but highly realistic backscatter signals generated from molecules, aerosols, clouds, ocean surface, and ocean subsurface. Solar background signals are derived from the scene specific aerosol and cloud characteristics, surface type, and sun elevation. The tool models both random and systematic uncertainties in the retrieved geophysical parameters. In this study, we will present simulated results that compare and contrast the performance of spaceborne HSRL systems to the performance of CALIOP. As recommended by the Decadal Study, ACCP is seeking advances over the performance that has been achieved by A-Train. This study will provide a description of the HSRL and elastic backscatter techniques and demonstrate how and why the performance of these HSRL systems exceeds the performance of CALIOP.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMA174.0013P
- Keywords:
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- 3311 Clouds and aerosols;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3354 Precipitation;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3360 Remote sensing;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES