Decadal Survey Aerosol/Cloud/Ecosystem (ACE) Mission: Brief Overview

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Decadal SurveyAerosol/Cloud/Ecosystem (ACE)
Mission Brief Overview

• Chuck McClain Paty Matrai
• NASA Carbon Cycle Ecosystems
• Joint Science Team Meeting
• April 28-May1, 2008

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Decadal Survey ACE is a 2nd tier mission.
The primary goal of the Aerosol/Cloud/Ecosystem
Mission (ACE) is to reduce the Uncertainty of
climate forcing in aerosol-cloud interactions
and ocean ecosystem CO2 uptake.
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ACE Mission Study 2007

• Objective to prepare a NASA HQ response to
  Decadal Survey recommendations
• ACE study one of 13 mission studies conducted at
  GSFC in late 2006-early 2007
• Primarily to scope mission configuration and cost
• Small science advisory group to define mission
  science objectives and science traceability
  matrix
• Representatives from ocean, aerosol, cloud
  communities
• Baseline sensor suite
• Wide-swath aerosol polarimeter
• Multi-beam aerosol lidar
• Dual-frequency scanning cloud radar
• Cloud infrared radiometer
• Wide-swath ocean biogeochemistry radiometer
• Cloud high and low frequency microwave
  radiometers (options)
• Estimated cost 1.7B
• Includes microwave radiometers
• 2 platforms in formation

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Aerosol/Cloud Measurement Strategy
Ship tracks
Smoke over clouds
Particle Ranges
Drizzle

• In order to understand the interaction between
  pollution, clouds and precipitation and to
  address air quality, the necessary measurements
  include
• particle distribution from fine mode to
  raindrops
• aerosol and cloud particle optical properties
• aerosol and cloud heights
• aerosol composition
• Following the measurement suite pioneered by the
  A-Train, a combination of active and passive
  multi-wavelength sensors is needed.

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Ocean Biology/Biogeochemistry Research Goals to
Observations
Ocean Radiometer
ACE Ocean Measurements Trace Directly to Science
Goals

UV

• Short UV for advanced atmospheric correction
• over turbid water

Ocean Biology Biogeochemistry Plan
Key Biochemistry Biology Properties
NASA Strategic Plan
Visible
98 bands from 335 865 nm, 19 aggregate bands
total

• Dissolved carbon
• Phytoplankton pigments
• Functional groups
• Physiology
• Particle size
• Calcite
• Fluorescence
• Coastal biology
• Atmospheric corrections

• Ecosystems biodiversity
• Carbon/elemental cycles
• Habitats
• Hazards

• Understand Earth system
• New observations to detect
• and predict change

NIR
Key environmental parameters
Research objectives for Earth Science
Ocean biology and biogeochemistry questions
Measurement requirements
lead to
lead to
lead to
SWIR
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ACE Current Status

• NASA HQ moving forward on Decadal Survey mission
  formulations
• ACE mission
• Small ACE science working group being defined
• Equal representation across disciplines
• Science rationale/objectives to be revisited
• Mission observational requirements to be
  re-evaluated
• Some suite of studies (TBD) will be supported

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Issues for Ocean Biogeochemistry Community

• ACE regarded by many to be primarily an
  aerosol-cloud mission for radiation budget
  studies.
• Mission cost could force observational
  compromises, e.g., dropping or descoping some
  sensors
• Ocean-aerosol interactions are seen as secondary,
  but are critical to ocean science.
• Need to define strong science rationale with
  collaborations between ocean aerosol
  communities
• Need to see that relevant atmospheric chemistry
  component is included
• Ocean-cloud interactions poorly defined.
• What links can be made between ocean and cloud
  communities?

Ocean community must be proactive in identifying
science objectives that bridge to aerosol and
cloud science and develop partnerships with those
communities.
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Aerosol removal
Clouds
Illumination Precipitation/Fe deposition Precipita
tion/MLD
Cloud formation/suppression Precipitation
influences
Aerosols
Chemistry
Ocean Biology
Fe deposition N deposition Dust-borne
contagion Gas-to-particle conversion
DMS, halogens VOC production (for aerosol
particle formation) CO2, N2O release Photochemistr
y (cDOM, CO2, CO, COS production, DMS loss)
2008 NASA Carbon focus area science meeting,
Adelphi, MD
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Breakout Session QuestionsScience Enabled by
New Measurements

• What are the priority science uses of the new
  measurements?
• What do we need to do scientifically to use these
  new measurements and/or to get ready for the
  mission?
• Are there any major issues to be resolved before
  this science is enabled, and if so, what are they
  and what needs to be done?

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Ocean properties from polar orbit
(Aerosol/Cloud/Ecosystem ACE)

• What are the priority science uses of the new
  measurements?
• Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere (SOLAS) science,
  foci 1 and 3
• gt examples (see next slide)
• http//www.solas-int.org/aboutsolas/organisationaa
  ndstructure/ sciplanimpstrategy/sciplanis.html
• http//www.us-solas.org8080/Plone/science-impleme
  ntation-strategy
• Aquatic photochemistry -gt CO2, CO, VOC gt add UV
  bands
• Photo-oxydation of DOM may be as large a source
  of CO2 as photosynthesis
• Emphasis on global and regional processes
• Specific geographic regions e.g., Arabian Sea
  strato-cumulus cloud-dominated areas
• Coupling between carbon and water/energy cycles
• Capability to measure fluorescence gt nutrient
  limitation
• Functional groups gt additional spectral bands

2008 NASA Carbon focus area science meeting,
Adelphi, MD
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Aerosol removal
Clouds
Illumination Precipitation/Fe deposition Precipita
tion/MLD
Cloud formation/suppression Precipitation
influences
Aerosols
Chemistry
Ocean Biology
Fe deposition N deposition Dust-borne
contagion Gas-to-particle conversion
DMS, halogens VOC production (for aerosol
particle formation) CO2, N2O release Photochemistr
y (cDOM, CO2, CO, COS production, DMS loss)
2008 NASA Carbon focus area science meeting,
Adelphi, MD
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Ocean properties from polar orbit
(Aerosol/Cloud/Ecosystem ACE)

• What do we need to do scientifically to use these
  new measurements and/or to get ready for the
  mission?
• Coordinate the 3 ocean missions (ACE, GEO-CAPE,
  HyspIRI)
• Capacity development needed, i.e., enough
  scientists and infrastructure to support all
• In case of ocean color gap
• International collaborations established soon
  (with appropriate agreements on data exchange,
  calibration, validation)
• Define science program (field modeling studies)
  that maintain community focus on data continuity
  and mission foundations
• Ensure ocean instrument is scoped for enhanced
  capability, beyond currently available products

2008 NASA Carbon focus area science meeting,
Adelphi, MD
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Ocean properties from polar orbit
(Aerosol/Cloud/Ecosystem ACE)

• Are there any major issues to be resolved before
  this science is enabled, and if so, what are they
  and what needs to be done?
• New, single atmospheric correction for ocean
  color and aerosols
• New observations in UV and SWIR gt new in situ
  instrumentation and calibration
  sources/methodologies
• Comprehensive cal/val, incl. vicarious
  calibration strategy
• Possible solutions for a data gap
• Biological/geochemical/optical time series at
  multiple ocean locations for scientific reasons,
  e.g., HOT, BATS, other
• Radiometric long term time series at single
  marine location
• Merge both options above at a single site

2008 NASA Carbon focus area science meeting,
Adelphi, MD