On NASA's Suomi NPP satellite, the newest version of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument is scanning Earth, helping to assure availability of measurements of the energy leaving the Earth-atmosphere system. The CERES results help scientists to determine the Earth's energy balance, providing a long-term record of this crucial environmental parameter that will be consistent with those of its predecessors.
The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft captured this imagery and data over Hurricane Sandy as the storm approached the U.S. east coast on October 28, 2012. The image at left covers an area 250 miles (400 kilometers) wide and extends from Massachusetts to Florida; it shows much of the western half of the hurricane. The eye of the storm is to the right and outside of the observed area. READ MORE
Air Quality is vital to our everyday and long term health. Over the years, scientists have been able to develop satellites that observe the composition of the air in the upper levels of the atmosphere. The problem is, we don’t live there. We live here on the ground, so in 2011 NASA started DISCOVER-AQ (Deriving Information on Surface conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality.)
Two planes (one from NASA Langley, the other from NASA Wallops), equipped with science instruments, will fly over the San Joaquin valley -- one as close as 1,000 feet to the ground -- to measure air pollution. They are part of a five-year NASA science campaign called DISCOVER-AQ, which is working to improve the ability of satellites to consistently observe air quality in the lowest part of the atmosphere. See the Full Video
The Whitewater-Baldy Fire was discovered on May 16, 2012. By June 12, 2012, it had burned a total of 278,708 acres (1,128 square kilometers), making it the largest wildfire on record in New Mexico. The background (top) image was captured by MODIS and provides a true-color view of the fire from directly above. The yellow line indicates the path of the CALIPSO satellite and its laser used to generate a vertical profile of the smoke plume.
NASA is engaged in two airborne science campaigns, one of which will study how forest fire smoke, air pollution and natural emissions are transported to the upper troposphere by convection or thunderstorms.
AirMSPI took part in a number of flights onboard the NASA ER-2 high altitude aircraft flying targets over the California Central Valley and off the coast of Southern California. The goals of this campaign included obtaining data coincident with ground-based and in situ observations of aerosols and clouds in conjunction with the NASA-sponsored DISCOVER-AQ.
Time history of CALIPSO 532 nm total attenuated backscatter from 13 February2014 showing the eruption of Mount Kelud at ~8° S. Volcanic ash has been injected through the overlying cirrus clouds and well into the stratosphere at heights up to 26 km (over 16 miles).
On Monday, March 3 at 19:50 the CALIPSO payload returned to nominal data acquisition (DAQ) mode on after weathering 2 significant solar events. Because of the length of time that CALIPSO was not in DAQ there may be some delay in nominal data generation.
The NASA Langley Atmospheric Sciences Data Center (ASDC) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announce the public release of version 003 of Airborne Multiangle SpectroPolarimetric Imager (AirMSPI) Level 1B2 data products.
The Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) at NASA Langley Research Center in collaboration with the CALIPSO mission team announces the release of a new data product:
Aerosols
Clouds
Radiation Budget
Tropospheric Chemistry
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