CloudSat

https://cloudsat.atmos.colostate.edu/home

https://cloudsat.atmos.colostate.edu/data

CloudSat is one of NASA’s weather and climate-tracking satellites, and from its name, it’s apparent what it measures – clouds!! Clouds have an enormous influence on Earth’s weather, climate and energy balance, and CloudSat has been helping scientists learn about clouds since it was launched on a Delta II rocket in 2006. From providing a view from space as we watch an approaching hurricane to providing details about how clouds impact radiation from the sun and the climate, CloudSat has been understanding the impact of clouds for nearly 15 years.

The cloud radar on CloudSat is 1000 times more sensitive than most weather radars on the ground. With its long history sending us data about clouds, CloudSat has contributed so much valuable information! CloudSat provides a never-before-seen perspective on clouds; its radar allows us to see inside the large cloud masses that make our weather. This helps us understand processes such as those that convert the tiny cloud particles to precipitation. Key discoveries from CloudSat have included how often the clouds above Earth rain and snow, how much ice and water are in clouds, and how clouds heat or cool the atmosphere. Cloudsat measurements have shown how pollution, volcanic ash, and other aerosols can interact with clouds and affect both precipitation and how efficiently clouds reflect sunlight, which has a huge impact on climate. The cloud and precipitation measurements from CloudSat have been used to track the intensity and patterns of tropical cyclones as they become hurricanes. All of these critical observations will ultimately help us predict the effects of clouds on our climate and improve our predictions of climate change.

Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTSS)

https://dcotss.org/

DCOTSS Outreach

Geostationary Carbon Cycle Observatory (GeoCarb)

by ‎@GeoCarb22
https://www.ou.edu/geocarb

Paving the Way for Future Earth Science Missions

GeoCarb’s mission is to study Earth’s carbon cycle: The exchange of carbon among land, ocean, plants and animals, via processes like respiration and photosynthesis from the biosphere and burning fossil fuels. Carbon is the foundation of all life on Earth and understanding its circulation throughout the Earth system is crucial for understanding ecosystem health and services, ocean biodiversity and acidity, crop production, climate change and much more.

“Because the GeoCarb Mission provides persistent daytime measurements from a geostationary orbit of the concentration of the three important carbon gases: carbon dioxide, methane, and carbon dioxide every day under changing conditions at fine spatial scales that it will provide the information needed for breakthrough investigations into the global carbon cycle. In sum, GeoCarb will provide the basis for a transformational improvement in our understanding of the carbon cycle, and it will demonstrate an effective approach to monitoring CO2 and CH4, the two most important greenhouse gasses that is synergistic with greenhouse gas measurements from low Earth orbit by missions such as OCO-2, OCO-3, GOSAT, and GOSAT-2.” – Berrien Moore, GeoCarb Principal Investigator

GeoCarb will focus on two aspects of the carbon cycle. By measuring the daily concentration of carbon dioxide, methane and carbon monoxide over North and South America, GeoCarb will track changes in these gases over time, yielding insights into where carbon is being absorbed or released into the atmosphere. The mission will also measure solar-induced fluorescence – a faint red or infrared glow emitted by plants during photosynthesis. Together, these measurements will give scientists a clearer picture of how plants absorb and release carbon as they “breathe” during daily photosynthesis – and how this process is changing over time.

GeoCarb’s instrument is a spectrometer, which measures the wavelengths of incoming light to determine composition of gases and other atmospheric state variables. GeoCarb’s four measured wavelength regions allow it to measure the three greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane and carbon monoxide), as well as oxygen, which helps the team calculate the mixing ratio (column concentrations) of gases in the atmospheric column. The channel used to obtain oxygen concentrations also procies a measure of solar-induced fluorescence and other atmospheric characteristics. Understanding the role of plant photosynthesis in the carbon cycle will help scientists predict how atmospheric carbon concentrations could affect climate and other Earth systems in the future.

Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS)

New NASA research project employs an impressive array of technology to discern how and why intense bands of snow form in winter storms in order to supply forecasters with data to improve predictions of severe winter snowfall.

IMPACTS is carrying out several major field campaigns that will study how snow bands develop and grow in hazardous East Coast snowstorms, something that has not been the focus of a major research campaign in 30 years! The US East Coast has many large cities and population centers, so the snow from these snowstorms can have a big societal impact on transportation, commerce, and public safety. The data that IMPACTS collects will be used to improve how we forecast snow. Heavy snow falls from long narrow “snow bands” within storms. The unevenness of the snow bands within the storm is what makes predicting snowfall amounts so difficult. Which storms have strong snow bands and which storms do not? Can we measure snowfall from these narrow snow bands from space? Can we predict the location of the most intense snowfall? IMPACTS will help us find out! Better predictions mean communities can be proactive in protecting populations from oncoming hazards and disruptions.

“I have loved watching clouds and the sky for as long as I can remember. I have always loved doing outdoor activities such as skiing, hiking, biking and gardening, and understanding the weather, clouds and processes that create the rain and snow help me decide when and where to do those activities. Now as a scientist I not only get to admire the sky and the clouds, but learn about my favorite storms – snowstorms – and learn about them on all scales, down to the processes that make the snow and organize the snow into snowbands.” – Lynn McMurdie

Two NASA aircraft are being used by IMPACTS to go ‘snowstorm chasing’ during three wintertime field campaigns over a three-year period. The NASA ER-2 aircraft flies above the clouds at heights of more than 15 km (9 miles), and carries instruments such as radars, lidars, and microwave sensors that are similar to instruments on satellites now. The second aircraft is the NASA P-3B, and it flies within the snowstorm. The P3B carries instruments that directly sample characteristics of the snowstorm, such as the shapes and sizes of the snow crystals and the environment in which they form. These two aircraft fly coordinated patterns within, above, and around snowstorms as the storms develop, taking data so the scientists can learn exactly how intense snow bands develop within the storms. The data from the remote sensing instruments on the ER-2 aircraft will also help scientists improve our ability to measure snow from satellites.

IMPACTS collects data from a “satellite-simulating” ER-2 and in-situ measurements from a cloud penetrating P-3, augmented by ground-based radar and rawinsonde data, multiple NASA and NOAA satellites [including GPM, GOES-16, and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS)], and computer simulations. The ER-2 and P-3 provide the flight-altitude and long-endurance capabilities and payload capacity needed for the combined remote sensing and in-situ measurements.

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EPOCH

GeoCarb

IMPACTS

Libera

NAAMES

RaD-X

TROPICS

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