HR: 08:30h
AN: A21F-03 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: An Overview of ER-2 Platform Science during TC4
AU: * Platnick, S
EM: steven.platnick@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Laboratory for Atmospheres Code 613, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
AU: Newman, P A
EM: paul.a.newman@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Laboratory for Atmospheres Code 613, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
AB: The NASA high-altitude ER-2 aircraft flew 11 science flight out of San Jose, Costa Rica during July and August 2007 as part of the NASA-sponsored Tropical Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling Experiment (TC4). The ER-2 flew a remote sensing payload consisting of passive optical and microwave imagers (MAS/MASTER, CoSSIR, AMPR), a high spectral resolution IR imager (S-HIS), active sensors (CPL lidar, CRS and EDOP radars), spectral solar (SSFR) and IR flux radiometers, a microwave temperature profiler (MTP), and a visible video camera (MVIS). This suite of sensors provided a high spatial resolution simulator for cloud, aerosol, sounding, and trace gas retrieval capabilities from the "A-Train" constellation, in particular, the Aqua, CloudSat, and CALIPSO satellites. In this talk we present an overview of the ER-2 TC4 science and validation objectives, and a summary of the campaign accomplishments. Science goals included observations of convective system development, anvil cirrus property evolution (i.e., microphysics, optical properties, narrow and broadband radiative fluxes), tropical Tropopause Transition Layer (TTL) and subvisual cirrus detection and characterization, marine boundary layer cloud properties, aerosol transport and optical properties, and trace gas and atmospheric state characteristics. Coordination with the DC-8 and/or WB-57 aircrafts allowed for validation of various retrievals from these observations. Morning flights (due to adverse local afternoon weather conditions) included coordination with the Terra spacecraft when feasible.
DE: 0319 Cloud optics
DE: 0320 Cloud physics and chemistry
DE: 0322 Constituent sources and sinks
DE: 0340 Middle atmosphere: composition and chemistry
DE: 0365 Troposphere: composition and chemistry
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting