Field Campaigns
For TES to participate in a field campaign, some aircraft flights must be situated along the Aura track and, preferably, be made on days when TES can make special observations. Aircraft profiles from maximum altitude all the way down to sea level are highly desirable. Meaningful comparisons of TES with in situ data are very difficult unless the entire tropospheric profiles are available.
In order to compare TES profile data with other measurements, vertical smoothing and sensitivity must be accounted for by applying the appropriate averaging kernels (supplied with the TES data products). The error estimates included in the L2 data products are meaningful based on the current validation analysis.
Field campaigns in which TES has participated (note that these are not inclusive of all TES Special Observations) include:
SHARP Houston area, May 2009
Transect
HAVAIKI Mauna Loa, October 2008
OP3: SE Asia-Tropics, April 2008
Step & Stare
ARCTAS, March-April 2008
Step & Stare
WAVE, Feb-March 2008
Transect
WAVE, July-Aug 2007
Transect
TC4, July-Aug 2007
Step & Stare and Transect
SAUNA-2, Jan-Feb 2007
Transect
WAVE, July-Aug 2006
Transect
INTEX-B: Houston-Hawaii-Anchorage, Feb - May, 2006 (links to the runIDs)
For the International Chemical Transport Experiment, TES 'Step & Stare' observations were compared with IONS-06 ozonesondes, and TES O3 profiles were compared with Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) measurements -- see publications. In addition, TES and AIRS data were used in combination with knowledge of jet stream dynamics with atmospheric tracers to study dynamics at the tropopause and to identify stratospheric intrusions, investigate their 3D structure, and estimate cross-tropopause exchange. An 3D examination of the Upper Troposphere-Lower Stratosphere (UTLS) using AIRS and TES O3 and H2O, and preliminary comparisons between 'in situ' and A-Train observations, were made. AIRS and TES data show qualitatively similar vertical structure in O3 and H2O, and TES O3 and H2O retrievals show features typical of UTLS exchange.
SAUNA: Sodankyla, Finland, Mar 24 - April 14 2006 (links to the runIDs)
ARM-SGP: Nauru SO, Jan 18 - Feb 28, 2006 (links to ozone sondes)
An 'Emission Layer Flag' was identified for TES during the ARM-SGP (Southern Great Plains Atmospheric Radiation Measurement) campaign, when ozone sondes were launched from the NASA Wallops facility to coincide with night and day Aura overpasses at the ARM-SGP site. Comparing sondes with TES was key to identifying erroneous retrievals that can sometimes occur when the lowest layers of the atmosphere are 'in emission', i.e., are warmer than the surface.
CR-AVE: Jan 16 - Feb 10, 2006
The Costa Rica Aura Validation Experiment concentrated on the largely under-sampled tropical tropopause layer (TTL), which is the region of the tropical atmosphere between the top of the main cumulus outflow layer (~12 km) and the thermal tropopause (~16 km) and it plays a crucial role in the "dehydration" of air entering the stratosphere.
AVE: Houston, Oct 30 - Nov 15, 2004
Aura Validation Experiment field campaigns help understand and validate TES CO, O3, water vapor and other gas profiles in the troposphere.
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