H200-0001
Cloud and Precipitation Measurements Within NASA’s Decadal Survey Observing-System Study for Aerosols, Clouds, Convection, and Precipitation (ACCP)
Wednesday, 16 December 2020
Poster
Walter Arthur Petersen1, Scott A Braun2, Gerald G Mace3, Graeme L Stephens4, Duane Edward Waliser5, David M Winker6, Arlindo daSilva7, Jens Redemann8, Richard Anthony Ferrare6 and Meloe S Kacenelenbogen9, (1)Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, United States, (2)NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (3)Univ Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States, (4)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (5)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (6)NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, United States, (7)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (8)University of Oklahoma Norman Campus, School of Meteorology, Norman, OK, United States, (9)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States
Abstract:
The 2017 Earth Science Decadal Survey (DS) released in January 2018, identified science and applications priorities to be pursued during the 2017-2027 time-frame rather than recommending specific missions (as with the 2007 DS). Beginning in late 2018, NASA funded an intra-NASA center study, with university and community participation, to define a combined ACCP observing system, including identification of science goals and objectives, desired geophysical variables, and desired observing system capabilities. The overarching goal of ACCP is to jointly measure aerosol, cloud, and precipitation properties to improve understanding of the processing of water and aerosols through the atmosphere and to develop societal applications enabled from this understanding. The ACCP science objectives derive from three of the most important science questions relevant to ACCP in the decadal survey, specifically climate sensitivity and feedback, convective storm formation processes, and air pollution processes and distribution.
Thus far the ACCP observing system study has explored numerous observing system architecture designs, instruments, and associated measurement capabilities. Example architectures explored thus far include single-platform systems, constellations of small satellites, and hybrid approaches (mixtures of small and larger spacecraft). The observing systems include various combinations of multi-frequency and Doppler radars, backscatter and high-spectral resolution lidars, polarimeters, microwave radiometers and multi-spectral imagers. Accordingly, in this presentation we will provide a status of architecture types and measurement capabilities explored set the in the context of ACCP science objectives and overarching DS-mandated studies of clouds and precipitation.
