Abstract
First of its kind combined atmospheric and ocean profile data were collected by the recently upgraded NASA Langley Research Center’s (LaRC) High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL-1) during the 17 July – 7 August 2014 Ship-Aircraft Bio-Optical Research Experiment (SABOR). This mission sampled over a region that covered the Gulf of Maine, open-ocean near Bermuda, and coastal waters from Virginia to Rhode Island. The HSRL-1 and the Research Scanning Polarimeter from NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies collected data onboard the NASA LaRC King Air aircraft and flight operations were closely coordinated with the Research Vessel Endeavor that made in situ ocean optical measurements. The lidar measurements provided profiles of atmospheric backscatter and particulate depolarization at 532nm, 1064nm, and extinction (532nm) from approximately 9km altitude. In addition, for the first time HSRL seawater backscatter, depolarization, and diffuse attenuation data at 532nm were collected and compared to both the ship measurements and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (NASA MODIS-Aqua) satellite ocean retrievals.
Highlights
A combined ocean and atmospheric lidar has the potential to provide key measurements needed to better understand both the ocean optical properties, and the biogeochemical properties of the global oceans, and air-sea exchange processes important for climate studies
It has been shown that the particle organic carbon stocks in the ocean are better estimated from particle backscatter than chlorophyll concentrations [e.g. 1]
Recent results using the CALIPSO satellite measurements have revealed that global measurements [2] of vertically integrated backscatter within the ocean are possible, even from an instrument not designed for ocean profiling
Summary
A combined ocean and atmospheric lidar has the potential to provide key measurements needed to better understand both the ocean optical properties, and the biogeochemical properties of the global oceans, and air-sea exchange processes important for climate studies. Lidar has the ability to provide vertical distributions of the optical properties within the ocean that are not possible from current passive satellite measurements. As noted in [2], using the High Spectral Resolution Lidar and a passive ocean color sensor could result in a 3-D distribution of the upper ocean ecosystem.
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