The overall scientific goal of the cloud and aerosol monsoonal processes philippines experiment (CAMP2EX august october 2019) is to characterize the role of anthropogenic and natural aerosols in…

This is a $647,779 grant awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Shared Services Center to the University of Illinois for research related to the Cloud and Aerosol Monsoonal Processes Philippines Experiment (CAMP2EX) conducted in 2019. The overall goal of CAMP2EX was to characterize the role of anthropogenic and natural aerosols in modulating precipitation in the Philippines during the southwest monsoon. This grant will fund continued research using data collected during CAMP2EX to understand the impact of cloud heterogeneity on satellite-based measurements of cloud and precipitation properties, examine aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions, and incorporate CAMP2EX data into existing models. The research aims to help inform the development of future Earth observation systems. There is no set-aside designation for this grant.

The overall scientific goal of the cloud and aerosol monsoonal processes philippines experiment (CAMP2EX august october 2019) is to characterize the role of anthropogenic and natural aerosols in modulating the frequency and amount of warm and mixed phase precipitation in the region of the philippines during the southwest monsoon. IT is recognized that satellite observations are critical to achieving this goal, but that the complexity of the atmosphere over the region, particularly in terms of its heterogeneity, impedes the use of satellite data for quantifying aerosol-induced changes to cloud and precipitation properties. Therefore, another primary goal of CAMP2EX is to provide key calibration and validation data for satellite observations for the region, with the following key question to be addressed: to what extent does heterogeneity of the atmosphere impede the use of satellite remotely-sensed products for quantifying aerosol-induced changes to cloud and precipitation properties? CAMP2EX also contributes to the larger scientific discussion on the impact of aerosols on the evolution of cloud micro and macrophysical properties the so called indirect and semi-direct effects. These effects remain a key source of uncertainty in estimating anthropogenic climate change as assessed, for example, by the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Satellite-based remote sensing continues to be the primary source of observational data used in such assessments, but concerns persist regarding measurement artifacts that covary with the underlying scene heterogeneity at both micro and macrophysical scales. Here, following our participation in the development, deployment, and early analysis of CAMP2EX, we propose to complete research thrusts developed under our successor proposal, and carry out novel research that continues to reach towards the goals of CAMP2EX. Specifically, we propose to (1) understand and quantify the impact of cloud heterogeneity on the error characteristics of retrieved cloud microphysical and optical properties from several orbital and suborbital passive sensors, with a focus on how errors covary with cloud macrophysical properties (2) examine and understand aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions as determined using different sub-orbital and orbital systems, accounting for errors that covary with cloud macrophysical properties (3) provide an extensive summary of cloud macrophysical properties using a special collection of orbital and sub-orbital sensors tasked specifically for this purpose for CAMP2EX, (4) incorporate CAMP2EX data into our existing neural network for retrieving liquid and ICE cloud and precipitation properties from the multi-frequency APR-3 radar, which feeds into our aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions study (5) continue to lead the CAMP2EX radiation focus area working group and (6) provide research experience for graduate students working with remote sensing and in situ data and model simulations. This research uses many of the instrument datasets collected by CAMP2EX. IT also uses a special collection of NASA and non-NASA satellite data tasked specifically for CAMP2EX, which represents the largest collection in the world of high-resolution satellite data collected over a tropical oceanographic region for meteorological studies. Synergistic applications of advanced 3D radiative transfer and dynamical models are also used in our study. Results from this research will also provide quantitative results to help inform future observing system architectures for the aerosol and cloud, convection, and precipitation (accp) mission NASA s response to the latest national academies of science, engineering and medicine (nasem) decadal survey, thriving on our changing planet: a decadal strategy for earth observations from space.