Oct. 25, 2018, 8 a.m.

Project: AIRMSPI

The NASA Langley Atmospheric Sciences Data Center (ASDC) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announce the public release of Version 009 of the Ground-based Multiangle SpectroPolarimetric Imager (GroundMSPI) Level 1B2 data products for the Aerosol Characterization from Polarimeter and Lidar (ACEPOL) flight campaign.

The GroundMSPI instrument was built by JPL and the University of Arizona under NASA’s Instrument Incubator Program, and is aimed primarily at the study of the polarization properties of the land surface, aerosols and clouds.

GroundMSPI Level 1B2 products contain radiometric and polarimetric images acquired from a vantage point at the Earth’s surface. The instrument is capable of both upward- and downwardlooking measurements. The products contain data at 8 wavelengths: 355, 380, 445, 470, 555, 660, 865, and 935 nm. The data products include radiance, time, solar zenith, solar azimuth, view zenith, and view azimuth for all spectral bands. Wavelengths for which polarization information is available (470, 660, and 865 nm) also include the Stokes parameters Q and U, as well as degree of linear polarization (DOLP) and angle of linear polarization (AOLP). Q, U, and AOLP are reported relative to both the scattering- and view meridian planes. Files are distributed in HDF-EOS-5 format.

This release of GroundMSPI data contains all targets acquired during the Aerosol Characterization from Polarimeter and Lidar (ACEPOL) flight campaign. ACEPOL was based out of Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, CA, and focused on assessing the capabilities of proposed future instruments by the ACE pre-formulation study to answer fundamental science questions associated with aerosols, clouds, air quality and global ocean ecosystems. GroundMSPI provided support for the instruments aboard the ER-2, acquiring data on October 25 and November 7, 2017, while the instrument was situated at Rosamond Dry Lake and Fresno, CA, respectively.

Information about these products, details about product quality, and mechanisms to access the data can be found under AirMSPI Data and Information at the ASDC website. Please check back often as new products are continuing to be added and made available for ordering.