1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE MODIS COLLECTION 6 C6 DARK-TARGET DT AEROSOL RETRIEVAL IS A NASA FLAGSHIP ALGORITHM FOR PROVIDING OBSERVATIONS OF GLOBAL AEROSOL PROPERTIES INCLUDING AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH AOD OVER LAND AND OCEAN, AND FINE MODE FRACTION FMF OVER OCEAN. WHILE MODIS AND OTHER AEROSOL DATASETS ARE INTEGRAL FOR ESTIMATING THE SIGN AND MAGNITUDE OF GLOBAL AEROSOL RADIATIVE FORCING, THEY ARE GENERALLY APPLICABLE ONLY FOR CLEAR-SKY REGIONS FAR FROM CLOUDS. YET, AEROSOL PROPERTIES WITHIN CLOUD FIELDS APPEAR DIFFERENT THAN THOSE FAR FROM CLOUDS. SOME OF THESE APPARENT DIFFERENCES ARE DUE TO PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES OF THE AEROSOL E.G. HUMIDIFICATION NEAR CLOUDS, BUT ALSO CLOUDS CONTAMINATE AEROSOL RETRIEVALS. CLOUD CONTAMINATION COMES FROM TWO SOURCES: A UNDETECTED SUB-PIXEL CLOUDS, AND B RADIATION FROM ADJACENT CLOUDS REFLECTED INTO THE AEROSOL SCENE A 3-D EFFECT. BOTH EFFECTS INCREASE THE APPARENT AOD, BUT HAVE DIFFERENT EFFECTS ON THE APPARENT AEROSOL SIZE. SUB-PIXEL CLOUDS ARE INTERPRETED AS LARGER PARTICLES, WHEREAS THE 3-D EFFECT CAUSES BLUING OF THE SCENE, AND IS INTERPRETED AS SMALLER PARTICLES. WHILE SUBPIXEL CLOUDS ARE THE DOMINANT CONTAMINATION FOR AEROSOL RETRIEVALS AT LOW SPATIAL RESOLUTION, BETTER CLOUD IDENTIFICATION MEANS THAT THE CLOUD ADJACENCY EFFECTS DOMINATE AT HIGHER RESOLUTION. SINCE THE RESOLUTION OF THE INSTRUMENT IMPACTS THE AEROSOL RETRIEVAL AVAILABILITY, AS WELL AS THE ABILITY TO CHARACTERIZE 3-D RADIATION EFFECTS, WE SEEK A HIGH-RESOLUTION, MODIS-LIKE DATASET TO TEASE OUT THE SEPARATION OF SUB-PIXEL CLOUDS AND THE 3-D EFFECT. SINCE THE MID-1990S, MODIS AIRBORNE SIMULATOR MAS HAS BEEN FLYING ON NASAS HIGH-ALTITUDE ER-2 AIRCRAFT, COLLECTING SIMILAR SPECTRAL INFORMATION AS MODIS. FROM A NOMINAL ALTITUDE OF 20 KM, MAS SPATIAL RESOLUTION IS ~50 M NADIR RESOLUTION COMPARED TO MODISS ~500M. THE MAS OR ONE OF ITS FAMILY MEMBERS, EMAS, MASTER, OR AMS HAS BEEN SUPPORTING FIELD EXPERIMENTS, SUCH AS TARFOX, SAFARI-2000, CLAMS, TC4, TCSP, PODEX, AND MOST RECENTLY SEAC4RS. HOWEVER, AEROSOL RETRIEVAL HAS NOT BEEN PERFORMED SINCE THE 1990S. IN ADDITION, THERE IS A WEALTH OF COLLABORATIVE DATA INCLUDING SATELLITE OVER-FLIGHTS AND GROUND-BASED SUNPHOTOMETER, AS WELL AS IN-SITU MEASUREMENTS AND LIDAR PROFILES. WITH ITS HIGH RESOLUTION, MAS IS A POTENTIAL GOLDMINE FOR STUDYING AEROSOL/CLOUD RADIATIVE AND MICROPHYSICAL INTERACTIONS. THE PROPOSING TEAM REPRESENTS THE GROUP WHO HAS DEVELOPED, MAINTAINED AND EXPLORED THE DARK TARGET MODIS ALGORITHM AS WELL EXPERTS IN 3-D RADIATION AND AEROSOL/CLOUD INTERACTIONS. TO ROUND OUT THE TEAM, OUR COLLABORATORS LEAD THE MAS AND CPL INSTRUMENTS/RETRIEVALS. WE PROPOSE THE FOLLOWING TASKS: PORT THE EXISTING C6 MODIS AEROSOL RETRIEVAL FOR APPLICATION ON MAS, PAYING ATTENTION TO DETAILS SUCH AS MAS CALIBRATION, AND SLIGHT DIFFERENCES IN WAVELENGTH BANDS. BEGIN WITH RETRIEVAL OF THE RECENT SEAC4RS FIELD DATA, BUT WILL RETRIEVE AEROSOL PROPERTIES ON SELECTED PREVIOUS MAS CAMPAIGNS. ARCHIVE RETRIEVAL DATA TO BE AVAILABLE TO ALL USERS. PERFORM INITIAL VALIDATION OF THE MAS AEROSOL RETRIEVALS, USING COLLOCATED SURFACE OR AIR-BASED SUNPHOTOMETER DATA E.G. AERONET/MAN OR 4STAR/AATS. COLLOCATE MAS DESIGNATIONS OF AEROSOL VERSUS CLOUD WITH COLLOCATED EXTINCTION DATA FROM CLOUD PHYSICS LIDAR CPL, ALSO ON ER-2 AIRCRAFT. STUDY AND CORRECT FOR THE 3-D EFFECT WITHIN THE HIGH RESOLUTION MAS DATA, BEGINNING WITH OVER-OCEAN RETRIEVAL DATA. USE OUR MAS AEROSOL PRODUCTS, STANDARD MAS CLOUD RETRIEVAL PRODUCTS, ALONG WITH CPL AND COLLOCATED IN-SITU DATA, TO STUDY PHYSICAL AEROSOL/CLOUD INTERACTIONS INCLUDING AEROSOL HUMIDIFICATION. TO SUMMARIZE, PORTING THE DT AEROSOL RETRIEVAL TO MAS ENABLES 1) BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF CLOUD ARTIFACTS IN LOWER RESOLUTION SATELLITE DATA, 2) A NEW AVENUE FOR EXPLORING AEROSOL/CLOUD MICROPHYSICAL INTERACTIONS, AND 3) A BRIDGE TO FUTURE AIRCRAFT CAMPAIGNS AND SATELLITE MISSIONS. NASA CANNOT AFFORD TO OVERLOOK THE POTENTIAL FOR MAS DATA TO UNCOVER INFORMATION ABOUT AEROSOL/ Other Administrative Action $0 10/10/17 Not listed EXECUTIVE SUMMARYTHE MODIS COLLECTION 6 C6 DARK-TARGET DT AEROSOL RETRIEVAL IS A NASA FLAGSHIP ALGORITHM FOR PROVIDING OBSERVATIONS OF GLOBAL AEROSOL PROPERTIES INCLUDING AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH AOD OVER LAND AND OCEAN AND FINE MODE FRACTION FMF OVER OCEAN. WHILE MODIS AND OTHER AEROSOL DATASETS ARE INTEGRALFOR ESTIMATING THE SIGN AND MAGNITUDE OF GLOBAL AEROSOL RADIATIVE FORCING THEY ARE GENERALLY APPLICABLE ONLY FOR CLEAR-SKY REGIONS FAR FROM CLOUDS. YET AEROSOL PROPERTIES WITHIN CLOUD FIELDS APPEAR DIFFERENT THAN THOSE FAR FROM CLOUDS. SOME OF THESE APPARENT DIFFERENCES ARE DUE TO PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES OF THE AEROSOL E.G. HUMIDIFICATION NEAR CLOUDS BUT ALSO CLOUDS CONTAMINATE AEROSOL RETRIEVALS.CLOUD CONTAMINATION COMES FROM TWO SOURCES: A UNDETECTED SUB-PIXEL CLOUDS AND B RADIATION FROM ADJACENT CLOUDS REFLECTED INTO THE AEROSOL SCENE A 3-D EFFECT. BOTH EFFECTS INCREASE THE APPARENT AOD BUT HAVE DIFFERENT EFFECTS ON THE APPARENT AEROSOL SIZE. SUB-PIXEL CLOUDS ARE INTERPRETED AS LARGER PARTICLES WHEREAS THE 3-D EFFECT CAUSES BLUING OF THE SCENE AND IS INTERPRETED AS SMALLER PARTICLES. WHILE SUBPIXEL CLOUDS ARE THE DOMINANT CONTAMINATION FOR AEROSOL RETRIEVALS AT LOW SPATIAL RESOLUTION BETTER CLOUDIDENTIFICATION MEANS THAT THE CLOUD ADJACENCY EFFECTS DOMINATE AT HIGHER RESOLUTION. SINCE THE RESOLUTION OFTHE INSTRUMENT IMPACTS THE AEROSOL RETRIEVAL AVAILABILITY AS WELL AS THE ABILITY TO CHARACTERIZE 3-D RADIATIONEFFECTS WE SEEK A HIGH-RESOLUTION MODIS-LIKE DATASET TO TEASE OUT THE SEPARATION OF SUB-PIXEL CLOUDS AND THE 3-D EFFECT. SINCE THE MID-1990S MODIS AIRBORNE SIMULATOR MAS HAS BEEN FLYING ON NASAS HIGH-ALTITUDE ER-2 AIRCRAFT COLLECTING SIMILAR SPECTRAL INFORMATION AS MODIS. FROM A NOMINAL ALTITUDE OF 20 KM MAS SPATIAL RESOLUTION IS ~50 M NADIR RESOLUTION COMPARED TO MODISS ~500M. THE MAS OR ONE OF ITS FAMILY MEMBERS EMAS MASTER OR AMS HAS BEEN SUPPORTING FIELD EXPERIMENTS SUCH AS TARFOX SAFARI-2000 CLAMS TC4 TCSP PODEX AND MOST RECENTLY SEAC4RS. HOWEVER AEROSOL RETRIEVAL HAS NOT BEEN PERFORMED SINCE THE 1990S. IN ADDITION THERE IS A WEALTH OF COLLABORATIVE DATA INCLUDING SATELLITE OVER-FLIGHTS AND GROUND-BASED SUNPHOTOMETER AS WELL AS IN-SITU MEASUREMENTS AND LIDAR PROFILES. WITH ITS HIGH RESOLUTION MAS IS A POTENTIAL GOLDMINE FOR STUDYING AEROSOL/CLOUD RADIATIVE ANDMICROPHYSICAL INTERACTIONS. THE PROPOSING TEAM REPRESENTS THE GROUP WHO HAS DEVELOPED MAINTAINED AND EXPLORED THE DARK TARGET MODIS ALGORITHM AS WELL EXPERTS IN 3-D RADIATION AND AEROSOL/CLOUD INTERACTIONS. TO ROUND OUT THE TEAM OUR COLLABORATORS LEAD THE MAS AND CPL INSTRUMENTS/RETRIEVALS. WE PROPOSE THE FOLLOWING TASKS: PORT THE EXISTING C6 MODIS AEROSOL RETRIEVAL FOR APPLICATION ON MAS PAYING ATTENTION TO DETAILS SUCH AS MAS CALIBRATION AND SLIGHT DIFFERENCES IN WAVELENGTH BANDS.BEGIN WITH RETRIEVAL OF THE RECENT SEAC4RS FIELD DATA BUT WILL RETRIEVE AEROSOL PROPERTIES ON SELECTED PREVIOUS MAS CAMPAIGNS. ARCHIVE RETRIEVAL DATA TO BE AVAILABLE TO ALL USERS. PERFORM INITIAL VALIDATION OF THE MAS AEROSOL RETRIEVALS USING COLLOCATED SURFACE OR AIR-BASEDSUNPHOTOMETER DATA E.G. AERONET/MAN OR 4STAR/AATS. COLLOCATE MAS DESIGNATIONS OF AEROSOL VERSUS CLOUD WITH COLLOCATED EXTINCTION DATA FROM CLOUD PHYSICS LIDAR CPL ALSO ON ER-2 AIRCRAFT. STUDY AND CORRECT FOR THE 3-D EFFECT WITHIN THE HIGH RESOLUTION MAS DATA BEGINNING WITH OVER-OCEAN RETRIEVAL DATA. USE OUR MAS AEROSOL PRODUCTS STANDARD MAS CLOUD RETRIEVAL PRODUCTS ALONG WITH CPL ANDCOLLOCATED IN-SITU DATA TO STUDY PHYSICAL AEROSOL/CLOUD INTERACTIONS INCLUDING AEROSOL HUMIDIFICATION. TO SUMMARIZE PORTING THE DT AEROSOL RETRIEVAL TO MAS ENABLES 1) BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF CLOUD ARTIFACTS IN LOWER RESOLUTION SATELLITE DATA 2) A NEW AVENUE FOR EXPLORING AEROSOL/CLOUD MICROPHYSICAL INTERACTIONS AND 3) A BRIDGE TO FUTURE AIRCRAFT CAMPAIGNS AND SATELLITE MISSIONS. NASA CANNOT AFFORD TO OVERLOOK THE POTENTIAL FOR MAS DATA TO UNCOVER INFORMATION ABOUT AEROSOL/ $0 10/10/17 Not listed EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE MODIS COLLECTION 6 C6 DARK-TARGET DT AEROSOL RETRIEVAL IS A NASA FLAGSHIP ALGORITHM FOR PROVIDING OBSERVATIONS OF GLOBAL AEROSOL PROPERTIES INCLUDING AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH AOD OVER LAND AND OCEAN, AND FINE MODE FRACTION FMF OVER OCEAN. WHILE MODIS AND OTHER AEROSOL DATASETS ARE INTEGRAL FOR ESTIMATING THE SIGN AND MAGNITUDE OF GLOBAL AEROSOL RADIATIVE FORCING, THEY ARE GENERALLY APPLICABLE ONLY FOR CLEAR-SKY REGIONS FAR FROM CLOUDS. YET, AEROSOL PROPERTIES WITHIN CLOUD FIELDS APPEAR DIFFERENT THAN THOSE FAR FROM CLOUDS. SOME OF THESE APPARENT DIFFERENCES ARE DUE TO PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES OF THE AEROSOL E.G. HUMIDIFICATION NEAR CLOUDS, BUT ALSO CLOUDS CONTAMINATE AEROSOL RETRIEVALS. CLOUD CONTAMINATION COMES FROM TWO SOURCES: A UNDETECTED SUB-PIXEL CLOUDS, AND B RADIATION FROM ADJACENT CLOUDS REFLECTED INTO THE AEROSOL SCENE A 3-D EFFECT. BOTH EFFECTS INCREASE THE APPARENT AOD, BUT HAVE DIFFERENT EFFECTS ON THE APPARENT AEROSOL SIZE. SUB-PIXEL CLOUDS ARE INTERPRETED AS LARGER PARTICLES, WHEREAS THE 3-D EFFECT CAUSES BLUING OF THE SCENE, AND IS INTERPRETED AS SMALLER PARTICLES. WHILE SUBPIXEL CLOUDS ARE THE DOMINANT CONTAMINATION FOR AEROSOL RETRIEVALS AT LOW SPATIAL RESOLUTION, BETTER CLOUD IDENTIFICATION MEANS THAT THE CLOUD ADJACENCY EFFECTS DOMINATE AT HIGHER RESOLUTION. SINCE THE RESOLUTION OF THE INSTRUMENT IMPACTS THE AEROSOL RETRIEVAL AVAILABILITY, AS WELL AS THE ABILITY TO CHARACTERIZE 3-D RADIATION EFFECTS, WE SEEK A HIGH-RESOLUTION, MODIS-LIKE DATASET TO TEASE OUT THE SEPARATION OF SUB-PIXEL CLOUDS AND THE 3-D EFFECT. SINCE THE MID-1990S, MODIS AIRBORNE SIMULATOR MAS HAS BEEN FLYING ON NASAS HIGH-ALTITUDE ER-2 AIRCRAFT, COLLECTING SIMILAR SPECTRAL INFORMATION AS MODIS. FROM A NOMINAL ALTITUDE OF 20 KM, MAS SPATIAL RESOLUTION IS ~50 M NADIR RESOLUTION COMPARED TO MODISS ~500M. THE MAS OR ONE OF ITS FAMILY MEMBERS, EMAS, MASTER, OR AMS HAS BEEN SUPPORTING FIELD EXPERIMENTS, SUCH AS TARFOX, SAFARI-2000, CLAMS, TC4, TCSP, PODEX, AND MOST RECENTLY SEAC4RS. HOWEVER, AEROSOL RETRIEVAL HAS NOT BEEN PERFORMED SINCE THE 1990S. IN ADDITION, THERE IS A WEALTH OF COLLABORATIVE DATA INCLUDING SATELLITE OVER-FLIGHTS AND GROUND-BASED SUNPHOTOMETER, AS WELL AS IN-SITU MEASUREMENTS AND LIDAR PROFILES. WITH ITS HIGH RESOLUTION, MAS IS A POTENTIAL GOLDMINE FOR STUDYING AEROSOL/CLOUD RADIATIVE AND MICROPHYSICAL INTERACTIONS. THE PROPOSING TEAM REPRESENTS THE GROUP WHO HAS DEVELOPED, MAINTAINED AND EXPLORED THE DARK TARGET MODIS ALGORITHM AS WELL EXPERTS IN 3-D RADIATION AND AEROSOL/CLOUD INTERACTIONS. TO ROUND OUT THE TEAM, OUR COLLABORATORS LEAD THE MAS AND CPL INSTRUMENTS/RETRIEVALS. WE PROPOSE THE FOLLOWING TASKS: PORT THE EXISTING C6 MODIS AEROSOL RETRIEVAL FOR APPLICATION ON MAS, PAYING ATTENTION TO DETAILS SUCH AS MAS CALIBRATION, AND SLIGHT DIFFERENCES IN WAVELENGTH BANDS. BEGIN WITH RETRIEVAL OF THE RECENT SEAC4RS FIELD DATA, BUT WILL RETRIEVE AEROSOL PROPERTIES ON SELECTED PREVIOUS MAS CAMPAIGNS. ARCHIVE RETRIEVAL DATA TO BE AVAILABLE TO ALL USERS. PERFORM INITIAL VALIDATION OF THE MAS AEROSOL RETRIEVALS, USING COLLOCATED SURFACE OR AIR-BASED SUNPHOTOMETER DATA E.G. AERONET/MAN OR 4STAR/AATS. COLLOCATE MAS DESIGNATIONS OF AEROSOL VERSUS CLOUD WITH COLLOCATED EXTINCTION DATA FROM CLOUD PHYSICS LIDAR CPL, ALSO ON ER-2 AIRCRAFT. STUDY AND CORRECT FOR THE 3-D EFFECT WITHIN THE HIGH RESOLUTION MAS DATA, BEGINNING WITH OVER-OCEAN RETRIEVAL DATA. USE OUR MAS AEROSOL PRODUCTS, STANDARD MAS CLOUD RETRIEVAL PRODUCTS, ALONG WITH CPL AND COLLOCATED IN-SITU DATA, TO STUDY PHYSICAL AEROSOL/CLOUD INTERACTIONS INCLUDING AEROSOL HUMIDIFICATION. TO SUMMARIZE, PORTING THE DT AEROSOL RETRIEVAL TO MAS ENABLES 1) BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF CLOUD ARTIFACTS IN LOWER RESOLUTION SATELLITE DATA, 2) A NEW AVENUE FOR EXPLORING AEROSOL/CLOUD MICROPHYSICAL INTERACTIONS, AND 3) A BRIDGE TO FUTURE AIRCRAFT CAMPAIGNS AND SATELLITE MISSIONS. NASA CANNOT AFFORD TO OVERLOOK THE POTENTIAL FOR MAS DATA TO UNCOVER INFORMATION ABOUT AEROSOL/ Not listed $155.9k 11/4/15 Not listed EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE MODIS COLLECTION 6 C6 DARK-TARGET DT AEROSOL RETRIEVAL IS A NASA FLAGSHIP ALGORITHM FOR PROVIDING OBSERVATIONS OF GLOBAL AEROSO $155.9k 11/4/15