Preliminary results from HARP CubeSat and a look ahead towards future HARP missions and concepts

Abstract:

The Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (HARP) CubeSat carries the first hyper-angular imaging sensor in space and is currently in low earth orbit and is collecting data on aerosol, clouds and surface properties. Due to the large data volume from the HARP multi-angle/multi-wavelength scheme, the CubeSat data acquisition is restricted to the selected target locations around the globe. Selected targets are chosen by the HARP science operations team based on geophysical interests, climatology, and synergy with other observing platforms including other satellites, AERONET, potential aircraft campaigns, etc. HARP CubeSat is preceded by the AirHARP sensor, which flew in two airborne missions with LIDAR and other instruments, and will be followed by the HARP2 instrument on board of the PACE satellite, which will fly together with the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI), and the SPEXOne imaging polarimeter. The HARP2 concept has very complementary capabilities in comparison with the other PACE sensors. In addition to these two sensors, the HARP concept is also considered for other potential missions, including an advanced system from UV to SWIR wavelengths that is envisioned for the A&CCP mission, and other versions designed for constellations of small satellites. In this presentation we will discuss the current data set collected by HARP and AirHARP instruments, the future data set to be collected by HARP2, and will look at the potential synergy between these data sets and other measurements. We will also discuss the current status of HARP and will summarize its first results on aerosol, clouds and surface retrievals.