Calendar Event Details
AeroCenter + Cloud Precipitation Center - Gala Wind
Affiliation: NASA GSFC, Code 613
Event Date: Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Location: G133
Time: 11:00 AM
Multi-sensor Cloud and Aerosol Retrieval Simulator and Its Applications
The Multi-sensor Cloud and Aerosol Retrieval Simulator (MCARS) produces synthetic radiance data from model output as if a specific sensor such as MODIS or SEVIRI were viewing an atmospheric column.MCARS not only allows for extensive, tightly controlled testing of various aspects of satellite operational cloud and aerosol properties retrieval algorithms; but also provides a platform for comparing cloud and aerosol models against satellite measurements. This kind of two-way platform can improve the efficacy of model parameterizations of measured satellite radiances, thus potentially improving model skill. The MCARS code provides dynamic controls for appearance of cloud and aerosol layers. Thereby detailed quantitative studies of impacts of various atmospheric components can be conducted in a controlled fashion. The cloud and aerosol properties used in MCARS are directly ingested from GEOS-5 model output. They are prepared using the Independent Column Approximation (ICA) technique. After MCARS computes sensor radiances equivalent to their observed counterparts, these radiances can be transparently substituted into an operational remote sensing algorithm. We show direct application of this synthetic product in analysis of performance of the MOD04 operational algorithm. We use biomass burning case studies employed in a recent Working Group on Numerical Experimentation (WGNE) -sponsored study of aerosol impacts on Numerical Weather Prediction (Freitas et al. 2016). We show that a known low bias in retrieved MODIS aerosol optical depth appears to be due to disconnect between actual column relative humidity and the value assumed by the MODIS aerosol product.
Posted or updated: Monday, May 2, 2016
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