The Wisconsin Snow and Cloud Terra 2000 (WISC-T2000) Experiment was a NASA campaign to validate satellite data from the MODIS instrument on Terra. WISC-T2000 included a single deployment in Madison, Wisconsin, from February to March 2000. The NASA ER-2 aircraft was equipped with remote-sensing instruments, including the MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS), the Airborne Multi-angle Imaging Spectrometer (AirMISR), and the Cloud Lidar System (CLS), to collect data on cloud and snow properties, as well as atmospheric conditions in the Upper Midwest for Terra validation. The ER-2 also flew over the Department of Energy (DoE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurements (ARM) User Facility in Oklahoma, where ground truth measurements were obtained. WISC-T2000 was among the first validation campaigns for the Terra satellite.
Radiosondes are a balloon-borne instrument package used to collect profile measurements of pressure, temperature, humidity, and winds. These sensors are connected to a radio transmitter that sends the measurements to a ground receiver typically operating in the 400-406 MHz range. They typically provide measurements at 1-6 seconds, depending on the type and manufacturer of the radiosonde. Radiosondes are used for weather forecasting, ground truth satellite data, atmospheric research, and input for weather prediction models.
Earth Science > Atmosphere > Atmospheric Water Vapor > Water Vapor Profiles
Ceilometers are ground-based remote sensing sensors that measure cloud ceilings and vertical visibility. They utilize a laser or another light source to detect backscatter from clouds, precipitation, and aerosols. Ceilometers provide detailed and precise measurements under all weather conditions and are cost-effective to operate. They are commonly used in boundary layer and cloud research.
Generic-Atmospheric State (Gen-AtmsState) refers to non-specific instruments on a platform used for measurements of atmospheric state parameters. These are typically in situ sensors that measure temperature, pressure, humidity, and wind speed/direction. Types of atmospheric state instruments include thermometers, hygrometers, barometers, and anemometers.
Earth Science > Atmosphere > Atmospheric Water Vapor
Earth Science > Atmosphere > Atmospheric Pressure
Earth Science > Atmosphere > Atmospheric Water Vapor > Water Vapor Indicators > Humidity
Earth Science > Atmosphere > Atmospheric Temperature > Surface Temperature > Air Temperature
The Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) Wind Profiler is a ground-based Doppler radar. It measures electromagnetic signals to detect wind speed and direction. UHF Wind Profilers operate at the 300-1000 MHz frequency range. Due to operating at a high frequency, they allow for high-resolution wind measurements within the boundary layer.
The Raman Lidar (RL) is a ground-based lidar system operated by the Department of Energy’s (DoE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility. It detects Raman backscatter in the ultraviolet range (355 nm) to provide profiles of water vapor, temperature, and aerosol and cloud optical properties. It also detects Raman backscatter from water vapor at 408 nm and molecular nitrogen at 387 nm to help derive aerosol optical properties and water vapor mixing ratios. It has a range resolution of 7.5 m, a time resolution of 10 seconds, and a pulse repetition frequency of 30 Hz. RL can deliver profile measurements from approximately 200 m up to 10 km above ground level.
The Millimeter-Wavelength Cloud Radar (MMCR) is a ground-based radar developed by the NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory (ETL) for the Department of Energy (DoE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) sites. MMCR provides long-term observations of radar reflectivity, Doppler velocity, spectrum width, and other radar parameters for precipitating and nonprecipitating clouds up to 20 km above ground level (AGL). It is a vertically pointing, single-polarization radar system that operates at around 35 GHz. MMCR has a beamwidth of 0.2 degrees and typical vertical resolutions of 45 and 90 meters.
The microwave radiometers (MWRs) are ground-based radiometers manufactured by Radiometrics Corporation and operated by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Research Facility. MWR measures brightness temperature at 23.8 and 31.4 GHz to determine the column amounts of water vapor and liquid water in the atmosphere. MWR has a field of view (FOV) ranging from about 5.9 to 4.5 degrees depending on the channel and typically has a time resolution of 20 seconds for sky-view observations.
Earth Science > Atmosphere > Atmospheric Water Vapor > Water Vapor Indicators > Water Vapor
Earth Science > Spectral/engineering > Microwave > Brightness Temperature
Earth Science > Atmosphere > Atmospheric Water Vapor
The Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) is a ground-based passive interferometer developed by the University of Wisconsin Space Science and Engineering Center (UW-SSEC) for the Department of Energy (DoE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program. It uses Fourier transform spectroscopy to measure downwelling thermal infrared emissions from the atmosphere. These measurements can be used to provide profile measurements of atmospheric temperature and water vapor and detect trace gases. AERI operates across the 3.3-19 μm spectral range and up to 25 μm for the extended range version of the instrument. It has an optimal vertical resolution of 100 meters and completes a full sky scan about every 20 seconds.
Generic-Radiometers refer to non-specific radiometers on a platform. These are typically passive microwave radiometers that measure brightness temperature. Radiometers can be used to retrieve temperature and water vapor profiles, soil moisture content, ocean salinity, precipitation and cloud properties, and vegetation.
Earth Science > Spectral/engineering > Microwave > Brightness Temperature
The Micropulse Lidar (MPL) is a ground-based lidar system used for cloud detection. It measures lidar backscatter at 532 nm to retrieve cloud properties such as cloud top and base height. It can also be used for the detection of aerosols. MPL has a vertical resolution of 15 m and a maximum range of 18 km. MPL can operate autonomously and typically provides 10-second averaged data.
Earth Science > Spectral/engineering > Lidar > Lidar Depolarization Ratio
Sunphotometers are passive optical sensors that measure the amount of sunlight. They are pointed directly at the sun to measure direct sunlight and not sunlight scatter from aerosols. These measurements can be used to determine the aerosol optical depth by following Beer’s Law. Sunphotometers have been deployed on aircraft, research vessels, and field sites for aerosol research and monitoring.
The Multifilter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer (MFRSR) is a ground-based passive radiometer used to measure the global and diffuse components of solar irradiance. It measures solar irradiance across six narrowband channels and one broadband channel. The nominal wavelengths of the narrowband channels are 415, 500, 615, 673, 870, and 940 nm. MFRSR has a typical sampling interval of 20 seconds and takes measurements at four different shadowband positions: nadir, first side-band, sun-blocked, and second side-band. MFRSR is deployed across several of the Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility sites.
The Cloud Lidar System (CLS) was an airborne lidar system that operated on the ER-2 aircraft. It measured lidar backscatter to determine the height structure of clouds, cloud thickness, and other cloud properties. CLS was also used to determine aerosol properties. It used a Nd-YAG operating at 1064 and 532 nm and had a pulse repetition frequency of 10 Hz. CLS had a horizontal resolution of 20 m and a vertical sampling resolution of 7.5 m.
The Airborne Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (AirMISR) is a passive remote sensor with a pushbroom design, developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). AirMISR captures visible and infrared images similar to those from the MISR instrument on the Terra satellite. It gathers data using a single camera at nine viewing angles and operates in four spectral bands: 443 nm, 555 nm, 670 nm, and 865 nm. AirMISR has approximately an 11 km swath width and an instantaneous field of view of 7 m x 6 m at nadir. It is usually flown on the NASA ER-2 aircraft due to its high operating altitude of 20 km.
The RC-10 Mapping Camera was an airborne imaging system built by Wild Heerburg. It was a metric mapping camera with a shutter intervalometer designed to capture stereo imagery. It functioned across the 510 to 900 nm spectral range and had a typical resolution of 1.5 to 4 meters. The camera featured a 9x9 image format and was mounted in the Q-bay, nose pod, and both left and right wing pods of NASA’s ER-2 aircraft.
The MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS) is an airborne multispectral spectrometer designed to simulate the satellite instrument Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS). MAS operates over 50 spectral channels in the 0.55 to 14.2 μm range, providing high-resolution images of clouds and surface features. It has a horizontal spatial resolution of 50 meters and a swath width of about 36 kilometers at an altitude of 20 km at nadir. Its scan rate is 6.25 Hz, with each scan line containing 716 pixels.
The Scanning High-resolution Interferometer Sounder (S-HIS) is an airborne cross-track scanning interferometer developed by the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It measures emitted thermal radiation between 3.3 and 18 microns with high spectral resolution. These measurements help derive atmospheric profiles of temperature and water vapor in clear-sky conditions. S-HIS has a spatial resolution of 2 km and a swath width of 40 km at an altitude of 20 km at nadir. It operates at a sampling frequency of 0.5 seconds and has an absolute radiance accuracy of 0.2 K.
Earth Science > Atmosphere > Atmospheric Water Vapor > Water Vapor Profiles
Earth Science > Atmosphere > Atmospheric Temperature
Earth Science > Atmosphere > Atmospheric Water Vapor
Video cameras capture video recordings of various phenomena for research purposes. They are used on aircraft to provide continuous views of weather and terrain below the flight path. Video cameras are also employed to verify the aircraft's flight track. Additionally, they are deployed at field sites to monitor changes in vegetation, land cover, clouds, air quality, glaciers, and other Earth science phenomena.
