Simultaneous Earth views from CERES, MISR and MOPITT

Abstract

The ultimate goal of NASA's Terra mission is to unravel the mysteries of climate and environmental change. The instruments on board the Terra spacecraft are collecting global data sets needed to study the interrelationships inherent in the Earth's coupled atmosphere-land-ocean-biosphere system. Issues such as the Earth's energy balance, global cloudiness, the effects of atmospheric aerosols, and the impact of trace gases on climate can be addressed with simultaneous data from instruments such as the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES), the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) and the Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT). An important feature of the experiments onboard Terra is the ability to obtain data from multiple instruments viewing the same phenomena. CERES, MISR and MOPITT data available from the Atmospheric Sciences Data Center (ASDC) at NASA's Langley Research Center are used to demonstrate various complementary views of the Earth system. Examples are given of spatially and temporally coincident data covering phenomena such as aerosol concentrations from dust storms, and carbon monoxide and smoke associated with fires. CERES uses broadband radiometric measurements in three channels to provide both solar-reflected and Earth-emitted radiation throughout the atmosphere and, in combination with simultaneous measurements from instruments such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS), provides new information on cloud properties. MISR obtains precisely calibrated images taken simultaneously at nine different angles and four wavelengths (blue, green, red and near-infrared) to provide data related to aerosols, clouds, and the Earth's surface. MOPITT is a scanning radiometer designed to measure tropospheric profiles and total column amount of carbon monoxide on both the day and night portions of an orbit. Information about the available CERES, MISR and MOPITT data products, and how to obtain them can be found at the ASDC web site: http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov