Aqua MODIS and AIRS, Aura MLS, and CloudSat Sample Plots
A part of the A-Train Data Depot mission will be to facilitate quick previews of vertical profiles and horizontal swaths of measurements from different instruments, but collocated and placed on a common vertical and horizontal grid. Various science retrievals will be available, and in particular temperature, humidity, and cloud top and optical parameters (pressures, effective particle radii, optical depth, etc.). The images below are very early efforts towards that goal.
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Hurricane Ileana
On August 23, 2006, CloudSat and CALIPSO flew exactly over the eye of Hurricane Ileana, off the Baja peninsula coast. Other A-Train instruments - MODIS and AIRS on Aqua, and OMI on Aura - glanced over the hurricane as well. The upper image depicts profiles of CloudSat reflectivities (dBZ) calculated from the Level 1B product, 1B-CPR, that have been released by CIRA, Colorado State University. The lower image depicts provisional data from CALIPSO lidar, CALIOP, in particular Level 1B profiles of total attenuated backscatter at 532 nm, under initial release by LaRC/NASA. Overplotted lines represent different cloud pressures as retrieved by MODIS, AIRS and OMI algorithms.
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Hurricane Ernesto
MODIS, AIRS and CloudSat flew exactly over the hurricane eye on August 29, 2006. The CloudSat track relative to MODSI and AIRS swath is indicated as a yellow straight line in the imagery. CloudSat image courtesy of CIRA.
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Collocated AIRS and MLS, and MODIS and CloudSat, 08/06/06
AIRS collocated with MLS temperature profiles, and MODIS temperature profile collocated with CloudSat received powers. Shown is an ascending orbit from 08/06/06, transecting the Pacific Ocean. Note that MLS and CloudSat cannot be collocated for the most part of their orbits. Only as they approach 81N/S they become sufficiently close for eventual multi-sensor daily (instantaneous) analyses. A zoomed-in portion of the CloudSat orbit over Antarctica is shown here. |
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MODIS, AIRS and MLS vertical profiles of temperature, 07/04/06
Data from MODIS and AIRS, collocated with MLS, are displayed as "curtain" plots.
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Atmos Composition
