K. Chance, X. Liu, C. Chan Miller, G. González Abad, G. Huang, C. Nowlan, A. Souri, R. Suleiman, K. Sun, H. Wang, L. Zhu, P. Zoogman, J. Al-Saadi, J. -C. Antuña-Marrero, J. Carr, R. Chatfield, M. Chin, R. Cohen, D. Edwards, J. Fishman, D. Flittner, J. Geddes, M. Grutter, J. Herman, D. Jacob, S. Janz, J. Joiner, J. Kim, N. Krotkov, B. Lefer, R. Martin, O. Mayol-Bracero, A. Naeger, M. Newchurch, G. Pfister, K. Pickering, R. Pierce, C. Rivera Cárdenas, A. Saiz-Lopez, W. Simpson, E. Spinei, R. J. Spurr, J. Szykman, O. Torres, J. Wang
The NASA/Smithsonian Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO; tempo.si.edu) satellite instrument will measure atmospheric pollution and much more over Greater North America at high temporal resolution (hourly or better in daylight, with selected observations at 10 minute or better sampling) and high spatial resolution (10 km2 at the center of the field of regard). It will measure ozone (O3) profiles (including boundary layer O3), and columns of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitrous acid (HNO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), formaldehyde (H2CO), glyoxal (C2H2O2), water vapor (H2O), bromine oxide (BrO), iodine oxide (IO), chlorine dioxide (OClO), as well as clouds and aerosols, foliage properties, and ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation. The instrument has been delivered and is awaiting spacecraft integration and launch in 2022. This talk describes a selection of TEMPO applications based on the TEMPO Green Paper living document (http://tempo.si.edu/publications.html).
Applications to air quality and health will be summarized. Other applications presented include: biomass burning and O3 production; aerosol products including synergy with GOES infrared measurements; lightning NOx; soil NOx and fertilizer application; crop and forest damage from O3; chlorophyll and primary productivity; foliage studies; halogens in coastal and lake regions; ship tracks and drilling platform plumes; water vapor studies including atmospheric rivers, hurricanes, and corn sweat; volcanic emissions; air pollution and economic evolution; high-resolution pollution versus traffic patterns; tidal effects on estuarine circulation and outflow plumes; air quality response to power blackouts and other exceptional events.
The Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) and the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instruments will provide a new capability for the understanding of air quality and pollution. Ball Aerospace is the developer of these UV/Vis Hyperspectral sensors. The GEMS and TEMPO instrument use proven remote sensing techniques and take advantage of a geostationary orbit to take hourly measurements of their respective geographical areas. The high spatial and temporal resolution of these instruments will allow for measurements of the complex diurnal cycle of pollution driven by the combination of photochemistry, chemical composition and the dynamic nature of the atmosphere.
The GEMS instrument was built for the Korea Aerospace Research Institute and their customer, the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) and the Principle Investigator (PI) is Jhoon Kim of Yonsei University. The TEMPO instrument was built for NASA under the Earth Venture Instrument (EVI) Program. NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) is the managing center and the PI is Kelly Chance of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO).
The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III (SAGE III) is an external payload on the International Space Station (ISS) that measures vertical profiles of ozone and other atmospheric constituents through the use of a moderate resolution spectrometer with an operating wavelength range of 290 nm to 1550 nm utilizing the method of occultation. Because of the contamination sensitivity [particularly to silicate contamination] of the payload, a suite of eight Thermoelectric Quartz Crystal Microbalances (TQCMs) were included to monitor the operating environment. During the first year of operation, the SAGE III/ISS TQCMs were instrumental in detecting several periods of relatively high contamination and identifying the sources. A transparent window made of quartz crystal covers the instrument assembly's aperture. The contamination window may open during science acquisition under nominal operating conditions. However, if the contamination sensors measure mass adsorption rates significantly elevated above the background level, the window may be commanded to remain closed during science to protect the contamination sensitive scan mirror and telescope. An analysis of the spectral transmission through the window for the wavelength range of 290 nm to 1550 nm has been conducted to determine any possible degradation of the window transmission and potential effects on science data collected to date, and establish a baseline for future analysis.
TEMPO was selected in 2012 by NASA as the first Earth Venture Instrument, for launch circa 2018. It will measure atmospheric pollution for greater North America from space using ultraviolet and visible spectroscopy. TEMPO measures from Mexico City to the Canadian tar sands, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, hourly and at high spatial resolution (~2 km N/S×4.5 km E/W at 36.5°N, 100°W). TEMPO provides a tropospheric measurement suite that includes the key elements of tropospheric air pollution chemistry. Measurements are from geostationary (GEO) orbit, to capture the inherent high variability in the diurnal cycle of emissions and chemistry. The small product spatial footprint resolves pollution sources at sub-urban scale. Together, this temporal and spatial resolution improves emission inventories, monitors population exposure, and enables effective emission-control strategies.
TEMPO takes advantage of a commercial GEO host spacecraft to provide a modest cost mission that measures the spectra required to retrieve O3, NO2, SO2, H2CO, C2H2O2, H2O, aerosols, cloud parameters, and UVB radiation. TEMPO thus measures the major elements, directly or by proxy, in the tropospheric O3 chemistry cycle. Multi-spectral observations provide sensitivity to O3 in the lowermost troposphere, substantially reducing uncertainty in air quality predictions. TEMPO quantifies and tracks the evolution of aerosol loading. It provides near-real-time air quality products that will be made widely, publicly available. TEMPO will launch at a prime time to be the North American component of the global geostationary constellation of pollution monitoring together with European Sentinel-4 and Korean GEMS.
KEYWORDS: Sensors, Stray light, Signal to noise ratio, Ozone, Photons, Ultraviolet radiation, Sensor performance, Space operations, Knowledge management, Signal detection
Following the successful launch of the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) aboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting
Partnership (NPP) spacecraft, the NASA OMPS Limb team began an evaluation of sensor and data product
performance in relation to the original goals for this instrument. Does the sensor design work as well as expected, and
can limb scatter measurements by NPP OMPS and successor instruments form the basis for accurate long-term
monitoring of ozone vertical profiles? While this paper does not address the latter question, the answer to the former is a
qualified Yes given this early stage of the mission.
In the area of aerosol remote sensing, one of the more noteworthy points of the last decade has been the realization that dust and smoke can be sensed from space over land and ocean by utilizing observations of scattered ultraviolet light [Torres, et al. 1998]. The spectral contrast ratio available from the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) backscatter ultraviolet (buv) data does provide a wealth of qualitative information, such as the ability to track the global dispersion of dust and smoke from regional sources. Quantitative information, e.g. total optical depth, single scattering albedo, however, is more difficult to extract from buv data. Assumptions must be made concerning various parameters that influence buv observations, e.g. the height of the aerosol layer, surface albedo, aerosol size distribution and index of refraction. While the necessity of assumptions is due in part to the availability of only two wavelengths from historical TOMS data, these assumptions may not truly be needed for future sensors. We examine what can be gained from making measurements of polarization in addition to those of radiance (as is currently done by TOMS and its successor the Ozone Measuring Instrument, OMI, on EOS-AURA) in the TOMS spectral coverage range free from ozone absorption (340-380 nm). Measurements of the degree of linear polarization and the plane of polarization with an uncertainty of less than 0.005 would help to determine the aerosol layer height to within less than 1 km. Multi-angle measurements would also help to better utilize the polarization data by defining the particle effective radius.
The Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite will produce ozone profiles using the limb scatter technique. While this technique has been used in the 1980s for mesospheric retrievals with data from the Solar Mesospheric Explorer, its use for the stratosphere and upper troposphere is relatively recent. To increase the scientific experience with this method, the Limb Ozone Retrieval Experiment LORE was flown on-board STS107 in 2003. A significant amount of data from
thirteen orbits was down-linked during the mission and exists for analysis. LORE was an imaging filter radiometer, consisting of a linear diode array, five interference filters (plus a blank for dark current) and a simple telescope with color correcting optics. The wavelengths for the channels were 322, 350, 602, 675 & 1000 nm and can be viewed as a minimum set of measurements needed for ozone profiling from 50 km to 10 km. The temporal sampling of the channels, along with the shuttle orbital and attitude (e.g. pitch) motions present a challenge in retrieving precise ozone profiles. Presented are the retrieval algorithms for determination of the channel's altitude scale, cloud top height and aerosol extinction. Also shown are a sub-set of flight data and the corresponding retrieved ozone profiles.
One retrieval technique of ozone profiles using scattered light from the limb of the atmosphere utilizes measurements made high in the atmosphere as a reference. While this procedure relaxes the radiometric accuracy required, it accentuates the need for stray light characterization. In addition, when the entire limb (all altitudes of interest) is imaged simultaneously, as done by the Limb Ozone Retrieval Experiment (LORE) with a linear diode array, the stray light must be characterized for the reference altitude to within 1.0e-04 of the maximum signal in the field of regard (typically at the lowest altitudes). For this system this further translates into the need to know the spatial point-spread function over 5-6 orders of magnitude. We demonstrate the use of pre-flight laboratory instrument characterization, in flight observations and radiative transfer modeling to characterize the stray light of LORE during STS107.
The background and an approach for deriving tropospheric ozone, water vapor and aerosols from direct sun observations, zenith sky radiances and the ratio of radiances at large zenith (near horizon) to the corresponding zenith sky radiances is described. Surface based remote sensing measurements of zenith sky and large zenith angle atmospheric radiance measurements have been made in the wavelength range of 305 nm to 923 nm near local noon from a mountain site at an altitude of 2.6 km in the vicinity of Boulder, Colorado. The wavelength dependence of the limb/zenith radiance ratios indicate significant limb darkening in the ultraviolet that changes to limb brightening with increasing wavelengths that is a maximum in the blue. Model calculations of a molecular atmosphere with absorption by ozone for wavelengths between 300 and 400 nm indicates that this ratio is sensitive to tropospheric ozone. Results from measurements and model calculations of the sensitivity of these ratios to tropospheric ozone are presented.
A new instrument has been developed to measure spacecraft attitude which utilizes ultraviolet radiation scattered in the Earth's limb. The sensor consists of a very stable UV bandpass filter with a center wavelength at 355 nm, imaging optics, and a linear diode array detector. The radiance of the limb at this wavelength is dominated by Rayleigh scattering and typically decreases by 15% per kilometer above 20 km. The theoretical resolution at the limb of this device is 0.39 km per pixel for a nominal orbital altitude of 306 km (approximately equals 0.012 degree(s)) and represents a significant improvement over typical infrared-based attitude sensors which have an accuracy of approximately equals 0.1 degree(s). This system was integrated with the Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet experiment and flown on STS-72 in January of 1996. The calibration and optical characterization of the device will be presented. Results from the first flight of this instrument, showing an agreement with available shuttle pointing data of +/- 0.05 degree(s), will also be discussed.
The possibility of utilizing limb scattering to monitor stratospheric ozone from space has been recognized as a possible remote sensing technique for many years. Unfortunately, due to the complexity of the radiative transfer problem associated with the spherical shell geometry and associated multiple scattering, the problem has received relatively little attention. While the complexity of the problem remains, the development of newer codes allows for the problem to now be tractable. Utilizing one such recently developed code, the authors have made a series of sensitivity studies relating changes in the limb radiances to changes in the ozone profiles. The calculations allow for the spherical geometry, include all orders of multiple scattering, and may include aerosols and other absorbing gases when relevant. Calculations of the changes are presented for a series of standard ozone profiles and for perturbed profiles. The results of these calculations indicate that measurement accuracies on the order of plus or minus 1% should provide adequate sensitivity to determine the significant structure of the ozone profile. Due to the complexity of the spherical, multiple scattering problem, direct inversion of the measured radiances is probably not feasible at this time. However, table look-ups provide a reasonable alternative, much as is currently done in the TOMS/SBUV retrieval algorithms. Results of the sensitivity studies for a range of conditions are presented.
The calibration method reported here makes use of the reflectances of several large, uniform areas determined from calibrated and atmospherically corrected SPOT Haute Resolution Visible (HRV) scenes of White Sands, New Mexico. These reflectances were used to predict the radiances in the first two channels of the NOAA-11 Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). The digital counts in the AVHRR image corresponding to these known reflectance areas were determined by the use of two image registration techniques. The plots of digital counts versus pixel radiance provided the calibration gains and offsets for the AVHRR. A reduction in the gains of 4 and 13 percent in channels 1 and 2 respectively was found during the period 1988-11-19 to 1990-6-21. An error budget is presented for the method and is extended to the case of cross-calibrating sensors on the same orbital platform in the Earth Observing System (EOS) era.
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