The Cloud Physics Lidar, or CPL, is a backscatter lidar designed to operate simultaneously at 3 wavelengths: 1064, 532, and 355 nm. The purpose of the CPL is to provide multi-wavelength measurements of cirrus, subvisual cirrus, and aerosols with high temporal and spatial resolution.
The Compact Scanning Submillimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer (CoSSIR) is an airborne, 12-channel, (183 - 874 GHz) total power imaging radiometer that was mainly developed for the measurements of ice clouds. But it can be used for estimation of water vapor profiles and snowfall rates. When first completed and flown in the CRYSTAL-FACE field campaign during July 2002, the system had 15 channels at different frequencies from those listed below.
CoSMIR is an airborne, 9-channel total power radiometer that was originally developed for the calibration/validation of the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager/ Sounder (SSMIS), a new-generation conical scanning radiometer for the DMSP (Defense Meteorological Satellite Project) F-series satellites.
Over the past two decades, the high-altitude airborne radar group at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has developed the 9.6 GHz ER-2 Doppler Radar (EDOP) and the 94 GHz Cloud Radar system (CRS) for flying on NASA's ER-2 aircraft at about 20 km above the ground.
A large array of state-of-the-art ground-based and airborne remote and in-situ sensors were deployed during the International H20 Project (THOP), a fjeld experiment that took place over the Southern Great Plains (SGP) of the United States from 13 May to 30 June 2002.
Studies of the Earth’s atmosphere require a comprehensive set of observations that rely on instruments flown on spacecraft, aircraft, and balloons as well as those deployed on the surface.
The Raman Airborne Spectroscopic Lidar (RASL) consists of a 15W ultraviolet laser, a 24-inch (61-centimeter) diameter Dahl-Kirkham telescope, a custom receiver package, and a structure to mount these components inside an aircraft. Both the DC-8 at NASA Dryden and the P-3 at NASA/Wallops are aircrafts that could carry RASL.
