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Instruments

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.

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CAR

The Cloud Absorption Radiometer (CAR), considered the most frequently used airborne instrument built in-house at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, is capable of measuring scattered light by clouds in fourteen spectral bands. To load an expanded view of the CAR instrument, with many of the mechanical, optical, and electronic components identified, click on the thumbnail image to the right.

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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.

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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.

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he Doppler Orbitography by Radiopositioning Integrated on Satellite (DORIS) was developed in France by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) with the cooperation of Groupe de Recherche en Géodésie Spatiale (GRGS) and the Institut Géographique National (IGN).

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G-LiHT enables data fusion studies by providing coincident data in time and space, and provides fine-scale (1 m) observations over large areas that are needed in many ecosystem studies.

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HAR

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. 

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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. 

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A portable ground instrument for measuring CO2 and CH4 in the Earth's atmospheric column.

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No instrument like MISR has flown in space before. Viewing the sunlit Earth simultaneously at nine widely spaced angles, MISR provides ongoing global coverage with high spatial detail. Its imagery is carefully calibrated to provide accurate measures of the brightness, contrast, and color of reflected sunlight.

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MODIS (or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) is a key instrument aboard the Terra(originally known as EOS AM-1) and Aqua (originally known as EOS PM-1) satellites. Terra's orbit around the Earth is timed so that it passes from north to south across the equator in the morning, while Aqua passes south to north over the equator in the afternoon.

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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.

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Pandora spectrometer instrument spectroscopy is used to measure columnar amounts of trace gases in the atmosphere. These gases (O3, NO2, CH2O) absorb specific wavelengths of light from the sun in the ultraviolet-visible spectrum.

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The PolSIR instrument – short for Polarized Submillimeter Ice-cloud Radiometer – will help humanity better understand Earth’s dynamic atmosphere and its impact on climate by studying ice clouds that form at high altitudes throughout tropical and sub-tropical regions.

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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.

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