The EarthCARE Mission – Science and System Overview

Wehr, T.; Kubota, Takuji; Tzeremes, Georgios; Wallace, Kotska; Nakatsuka, Hirotaka; Ohno, Yuichi; Koopman, Rob; Rusli, Stephanie; Kikuchi, Maki; Eisinger, Michael; Tanaka, Toŝhiyuki; Taga, Masatoshi; Deghaye, Patrick; Tomita, Eichi; Bernaerts, D.

doi:10.5194/egusphere-2022-1476

Cited by 19 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The measurement and background knowledge are described by the covariance matrices. The measurement error S e is defined through the instrument signal-to-noise ratio or the noise equivalent different temperature (Wehr et al, 2023) and the forward model error as:…”

Section: Measurement Vector and Covariance Matrixmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The MSI solar channels show a spectral curvature nonlinearity disturbance due to imperfect bandpass filters on the curved optical lenses (Wehr et al (2023)), which causes a spectral shift in across-track direction. This degradation of the spectral information content is currently under investigation, and it is planned to integrate mitigation measures in the M-CLD processor.…”

Section: Appendix Amentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The satellite measurements will be used to retrieve global profiles of cloud, aerosol, and precipitation properties and along with top of atmosphere terrestrial and solar fluxes (Illingworth et al, 2015). The MSI instrument is measuring in 7 channels in the visible, near infrared and infrared spectrum, with central wavelengths of 0.67 (VIS), 0.865 (NIR), 1.65 (SWIR1), 2.21 (SWIR2), 8.8 (TIR1), 10.8 (TIR2), and 12.0 µm (TIR3), and with 500 m spatial resolution (Wehr et al, 2023). MSI will have a swath width of 150 km, asymmetrically tilted away from the sun and covering -35 km to 115 km relative to nadir.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During nighttime, only the cloud top temperature/height/pressure can be provided. The instrumental characteristics of the MSI sensor, which largely determine the design and accuracy of the M-COP retrievals, are described in more detail in Wehr et al (2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cloud optical and physical properties retrieval from EarthCARE multi-spectral imager: the M-COP products

Hünerbein¹,

Bley²,

Deneke³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Abstract. ESA’s Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer EarthCARE is the first mission which will provide measurements from active profiling, passive imaging and a broad-band radiometer from a single satellite platform. The passive multi-spectral imager (MSI) features four solar and three thermal infrared channels, and has a swath of 150 km and a spatial pixel resolution of 500 m. The MSI observations will provide across-track information on clouds and aerosol to extend the active profiling information into the swath. In this paper, we present the algorithm used for retrieving the cloud optical and physical products (M-COP), specifically cloud optical thickness, effective radius and top height. The algorithm is based on the solar and terrestrial MSI channels within an optimal estimation framework. The advantage of optimal estimation is that it enables full error propagation given by the uncertainties in measurements and a-priori information. The MSI cloud algorithm has been successfully exercised on different imagers and on synthetically generated MSI observations.

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Section: Measurement Vector and Covariance Matrixmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Appendix Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Cloud optical and physical properties retrieval from EarthCARE multi-spectral imager: the M-COP products

Hünerbein¹,

Bley²,

Deneke³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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“…To improve the global observation capabilities and the radiation models, the Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) mission was designed (Illingworth et al, 2015). The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) built a satellite with four instruments on one single platform: a Cloud-Profiling Radar (CPR), an Atmospheric Lidar (ATLID), a Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) and a Broadband Radiometer (BBR) (Illingworth et al, 2015;Wehr et al, 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cloud top heights and aerosol columnar properties from combined EarthCARE lidar and imager observations: the AM-CTH and AM-ACD products

Haarig

Hünerbein

Wandinger

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Abstract. The Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) is the combination of multiple active and passive instruments on a single platform. The Atmospheric Lidar (ATLID) provides vertical information of clouds and aerosol particles along the satellite track. In addition, the Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) collects the multispectral information from the visible till the infrared wavelengths over a swath width of 150 km across the track. The ATLID–MSI Column Products processor (AM-COL) described in this paper combines the high vertical resolution of the lidar along track and the horizontal resolution of the imager across track to better characterize the 3-dimensional scene. ATLID Level 2a (L2a) data from the ATLID Layer Products processor (A-LAY) and MSI L2a data from the MSI Cloud Products processor (M-CLD) and the MSI Aerosol Optical Thickness processor (M-AOT) as well as MSI Level 1c (L1c) data are used as input to produce the synergistic columnar products: the ATLID–MSI Cloud Top Height (AM-CTH) and the ATLID–MSI Aerosol Column Descriptor (AM-ACD). The coupling of ATLID (measuring at 355 nm) and MSI (at ≥ 670 nm) provides multispectral observations of the aerosol properties. Especially, the Ångström exponent from the spectral aerosol optical thickness (AOT 355 nm/670 nm) adds valuable information for aerosol typing. The AOT across track, the Ångström exponent and the dominant aerosol type are stored in the AM-ACD product. The accurate detection of the Cloud Top Height (CTH) with lidar is limited to the ATLID track. The difference of the CTH detected by ATLID and MSI is calculated along track. The similarity of MSI pixels across track with those along track is used to transfer the calculated CTH difference to the entire MSI swath. In this way, the accuracy of the CTH is increased to achieve the EarthCARE mission goal aiming to derive the radiative flux at the top of the atmosphere with an accuracy of 10 Wm−2 for a 100 km2 snapshot view of the atmosphere. The synergistic CTH difference is stored in the AM-CTH product. The quality status depending on day/night conditions or the presence of multiple cloud or aerosol layers is provided with the products. The algorithm was successfully tested using the common EarthCARE test scenes. Two definitions of the CTH from the model-truth cloud extinction fields are compared: An extinction-based threshold of 20 Mm−1 provides the geometric CTH and a cloud-optical-thickness threshold of 0.25 describes the radiative CTH. The first one is detected with ATLID, the second one with MSI.

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Time Resolved Reflectivity Measurements of Convective Clouds

Dolan,

Kollias,

van den Heever

et al. 2023

Geophysical Research Letters

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Investigations of Convective Updrafts (INCUS) mission aims to document convective mass flux through changes in the radar reflectivity (ΔZ) in convective cores captured by a constellation of three Ka‐band radars sampling the same convective cells over intervals of 30, 90, and 120 s. Here, high spatiotemporal resolution observations of convective cores from surface‐based radars that use agile sampling techniques are used to evaluate aspects of the INCUS measurement approach using real observations. Analysis of several convective cells confirms that large coherent ΔZ structure with measurable signal (>5 dB) can occur in less than 30 s and are correlated with underlying convective motions. The analysis indicates that the INCUS mission radar footprint and along track sampling are adequate to capture most of the desirable ΔZ signals. This unique demonstration of reflectivity time‐lapse provides the framework for estimating convective mass flux independent from Doppler techniques with future radar observations.

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The EarthCARE Mission – Science and System Overview

Cited by 19 publications

References 29 publications

Cloud optical and physical properties retrieval from EarthCARE multi-spectral imager: the M-COP products

Cloud optical and physical properties retrieval from EarthCARE multi-spectral imager: the M-COP products

Cloud top heights and aerosol columnar properties from combined EarthCARE lidar and imager observations: the AM-CTH and AM-ACD products

Time Resolved Reflectivity Measurements of Convective Clouds

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