NASA Earth Observing Missions

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NASA Earth Observing Missions
Steve Platnick and Michael D. King NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center
POLAR MAX Silver Spring, MD 24 October 2006
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Summary of Recent/Future NASA Missions

• EOS Missions
• Landsat 7, QuikScat, Terra, ACRIMSAT, Jason-1,
  SAGE III/ METEOR-3M, Aqua, ICESat, SORCE, Aura,
  OSTM/Jason-2, Glory, NPP, LDCM
• Earth Probe Missions
• ERBS, UARS, TOPEX/Poseidon, EP-TOMS, SeaWiFS,
  TRMM
• New Millennium Mission
• EO-1
• ESSP Missions
• GRACE, CALIPSO, CloudSat, OCO, Aquarius

Key Not in operation Currently operating Future
mission
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Terra Goals Objectives

• Improve the ability to detect human impacts on
  climate by identifying indicators that can
  distinguish human activity from natural
  variability (Aqua Terra)
• Provide measurements of the effects of clouds,
  aerosols, and greenhouse gases on the Earths
  total energy balance (Aqua Terra)
• Provide estimates of global terrestrial and
  marine productivity that will enable more
  accurate calculations of global carbon storage
  (Aqua Terra)

• Contribute to improved methods of disaster
  prediction, characterization, and risk reduction
  from wild fires, volcanoes, floods, and droughts
  (Aqua Terra)

ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS, MOPITT
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MODIS Fire Occurrence Example(C. O. Justice, J.
DesCloitres Univ. of Maryland, NASA GSFC)
Bar Complex Fire, Northern CA MODIS Aqua, Sept
26, 2006

• USFS uses these data regularly to monitor fires
  and evacuate people
• Deep Space Network and Alaska Ground Stations
  affected in 2003
• Direct broadcast receiving stations in China,
  Russia, South Africa, Australia, and many other
  locations use these data for environmental
  monitoring

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MODIS Fire Occurrence Example(C. O. Justice, J.
DesCloitres Univ. of Maryland, NASA GSFC)
Mozambique/Tanzania MODIS Aqua, Oct 1, 2006
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MODIS Monthly Mean Aerosol Optical Thickness(L.
A. Remer, Y. J. Kaufman, D. Tanré NASA GSFC,
Univ. of Lille)
MODIS Aqua, April 2005 (C5 processing)

• Large Fine Mode Fraction
• Industrial pollution
• China, India, US, Europe
• Smoke from biomass burning
• Brazil and Bolivia, southern Africa, Australia,
  Borneo
• Small Fine Mode Fraction (large coarse mode)
• Desert dust
• Sahara, Arabian Sea
• Sea salt
• Southern ocean

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MISR Aerosol Optical Thickness(D. J. Diner, R.
A. Kahn, J. V. Martonchik JPL)
Oct 15, 2001 Pollution in northeastern India
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Aerosol Optical Thickness of Dust plumes in Asia
(N. C. Hsu, S. C. Tsay, M. D. King, J. R. Herman
NASA GSFC)

• Deep Blue Algorithm
• Uses reflectance at 412, 490, and 670 nm
  retrieves aerosol optical thickness and single
  scattering albedo (dust only)
• Less sensitive to aerosol height (compared to UV
  methods) and land surface (compared to standard
  MODIS method)

Hsu et al. (2006)
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Seasonal Measurements of CO at 700 hPa from
MOPITT(J. Drummond, U. Toronto J. Gille, NCAR)
December-February
March-May
June-August
September-November
0
135
270
Carbon Monoxide Concentration (parts per billion)
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Jason-1 Goals Objectives

• Provide measurements of sea surface topography
• The data collected provide information on
  ocean-surface current velocity and heights which,
  when combined with ocean models, can lead to a
  four-dimensional description of ocean circulation
• Increase understanding of ocean circulation
• Improve forecasting of climate events (e.g., El
  Niño and La Niña)
• Measure global sea level change

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Jason-1/Poseiden-2 Observations of Tropical
Pacific Sept 15, 2006 10-day average height
anomaly (relative to 1993-2005)

• Courtesy NASA/JPL Ocean Surface Topography Team
  press release Jason Satellite Observes Mild El
  Nino in 2006
• Global mean sea level accuracy of 10 day means
  2 mm
• Red above average heights Green normal
  Purple lower than average heights

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Aqua Goals Objectives

• Provide measurements of the vertical profile of
  temperature and moisture to enable improvements
  in weather forecasting
• Extend the time series of sea ice cover that was
  begun in 1978
• Provide measurements of surface moisture for
  improvements in weather forecasting
• Measure the rainfall rate using passive microwave
  radiometry (Aqua TRMM)

• Provide estimates of global terrestrial and
  marine productivity that will enable more
  accurate calculations of global carbon storage,
  exchange with the atmosphere, and year-to-year
  variability (Aqua Terra)

AIRS/AMSU/HSB, AMSR-E, CERES, MODIS
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MODIS Cloud-Top Properties(W. P. Menzel, R.
Frey, et al., NOAA/NESDIS U. Wisconsin/CIMSS)

• April 2005, MODIS Aqua (C5)
• CO2 slicing for mid to high level clouds (MODIS
  w/13.3, 13.6, 13.9, and 14.2 µm bands)
• Thermal window retrieval for low clouds

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California / California Current RegimeMonthly
Joint Histogram Counts of Liquid Water Clouds
over Ocean (M. D. King and S. Platnick, NASA GSFC)
32-40N, 117-125W June 2005
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MODIS AquaPolar Winds

• 7 March 2006, MODIS Aqua
• Combination of 6.7 µm water vapor band (not on
  VIIRS) and thermal IR

(courtesy of J. Key, NOAA/NESDIS and CIMSS
http//stratus.ssec.wisc.edu/products/rtpolarwinds
/)
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AIRS Water Vapor Observations(courtesy, M.
Chahine, T. Pagano, and AIRS Team)

• High spectral resolution grating spectrometer
• Primary standard products temperature moisture
  profiles in 1 km layers, TPW, cloud-cleared
  radiances, cloud properties, SST, O3
• AIRS data being made available to weather
  forecast centers via NOAA/NESDIS bent pipe
  system at Goddard DAAC NCEP, UK Met Office,
  ECMWF, GMAO, Joint Center for Satellite Data
  Assimilation (JCSDA), and others

Average water vapor distribution 500 mb to TOA
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AMSR-E Sea IceMarch 1, 2003

• Conical microwave scanner from JAXA
• 6.9-89 GHz channels, 1.6 m diameter reflector,
  spatial resolution 5-60 km
• Standard products ocean products (SST, sfc. wind
  speed, water vapor, cloud water path), rainfall,
  snow water equivalent, sea ice, surface soil
  moisture

Note visibility of individual floes leads (not
possible with earlier lower resolution passive
imagers)
(courtesy T. Markus, D. Cavalieri, and AMSR-E
Science Team and C. Parkinson)
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AMSR-E Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly Courtesy
F. Wentz, RSS and J. Allen, GSFC Earth Observatory
17 July 2006 anomaly relative to 1985-1997 AVHRR
record
July 17, 2006
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MODIS Chlorophyll-a and Sea Surface
Temperature(P. J. Minnett, O. B. Brown, R. H.
Evans, K. L. Carder U. Miami, USFcourtesy,
Ocean Color Processing Center, NASA GSFC)

• September 2006, MODIS Aqua
• SST (Nighttime, 4 µm)
• Warm water in tropics
• Western tropical Pacific, Indian Ocean, Gulf
  Stream
• Cold water in polar latitudes
• Antarctic Ocean Malvinas Current, Humboldt
  Benguela Current
• Chlorophyll-a
• Biologically productive regions
• Southern Ocean, coastal regions, north Atlantic
• Biological deserts
• Easter Island subtropical oceans

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SORCE Goals Objectives

• How does the sun affect Earths climate?
• Ozone, one of the important greenhouse gases in
  the stratosphere and Earths biological shield,
  varies in accordance with variations in solar
  ultraviolet radiation
• By how much does the sun vary?
• Total solar irradiance variations on 11 year
  solar cycle, w/facular brightening and sunspot
  darkening

TIM, SIM, SOLSTICE, XPS
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Total Solar Irradiance from SORCE et
al.(courtesy T. Woods G. Kopp, LASP/CU)

• TSI satellite measurements since 1978
• Current measurements from SOHO, VIRGO, ACRIMSAT,
  and SORCE
• TSI record relies on continuity

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Aura Goals Objectives

• Is the stratospheric ozone layer recovering?
• Ozone, one of the important greenhouse gases in
  the stratosphere and Earths biological shield,
  varies in accordance with variations in solar
  ultraviolet radiation
• What are the processes controlling air quality?
• Widespread burning for agricultural purposes
  (biomass burning) and industrial purposes affects
  trace gases in the lower atmosphere
• How is the Earths climate changing?
• Upper troposphere water vapor and aerosols force
  the climate

HIRDLS, MLS, OMI, TES
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OMI Observations of 2006 Antarctic Ozone Hole(P.
Newman, P. K. Bhartia, NASA GSFC)
OMI, 24 Sept. 2006

• 2006 is the most severe ozone hole yet observed.
• 106 DU minimum. White line 220 DU 29.5 million
  km2 (11.4 million mi.2) area (N. America 9.5 M
  mi.2)
• The severe ozone hole results from very high
  chlorine and bromine, combined with the record
  cold conditions in the Antarctic stratosphere.
  The cold conditions are a result of weak
  tropospheric wave forcing that acts to warm the
  stratosphere.
• Ozone depleting substances are currently
  declining very slowly at about -0.6 per year.
  The high levels of ODSs will remain for at least
  the next 10 years.

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OMI Observations of 2006 Antarctic Ozone Hole(P.
Newman, P. K. Bhartia, NASA GSFC)
OMI, 8 Oct. 2006

• Record 85 DU minimum
• (NOAA/CMDL South Pole sonde on
• 9 Oct. shows 1 DU in 14-22 km layer!)

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OMI MLS Global Tropospheric Ozone
Residual(courtesy, M. Schoeberl, NASA GSFC)
Ziemke et al. JGR, 2006
Augmenting TES tropospheric ozone measurements,
OMI MLS can produce a tropospheric residual
product by subtracting the MLS stratospheric
ozone from OMI column ozone.
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Afternoon Constellation, aka the A-Train
2008
2008
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CALIPSO Lidar first light, 7 June 2006
(Courtesy CALIPSO Team, D. Winker et al., NASA
LaRC and M. Schoeberl, NASA GSFC)
Soufriere Hills (Montserrat) eruption 20 May 2006
Aura/OMI Column SO2
http//www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/calipso/news/Fir
st_Light.html
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CloudSat Radar Observation - QuickLook (courtesy
CloudSat Team, G. Stephens et al.,
cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu)
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Summary and Resources

• NASAs Earth observing satellites have played a
  crucial role in understanding and documenting
  global change
• Some climate data continuity concerns
• TSIS (TIM SIM) deleted from NPOESS
• CERES FM-5 on NPOESS C1 (2013)
• AMSR-E CMIS replacement for C2
• Earth Science Reference Handbook
• revised May 2006, 277 pages (ed. Parkinson, Ward,
  King)
• eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/eos_homepage/for_scientists/d
  ata_products/refbook2006.php
• EOS Project Office
• eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.php
• Earth Observatory
• news, images of the day, data sets, and natural
  hazards
• earthobservatory.nasa.gov

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Extras
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MODIS Cloud Optical and Microphysical
Properties(M. D. King and S. Platnick, NASA GSFC)

• April 2005, MODIS Aqua (C5)
• Uses MODIS Cloud Mask (S. A. Ackerman, et al. and
  Cloud-Top Properties as ancillary data)
• Effective radii (not shown) using 2.1 µm band for
  standard retrieval