| Sensor
complement and related products of the A-Train |
|
Spacecraft
|
Payload
|
Characteristics
|
Cloud and Aerosol products
|
|
Aqua
Lead Constellaton Spacecraft
Launch: May 2002
|
MODIS
|
36 channel visible radiometer,
2300-km-wide swath, variable
resolution from 0.25 to 1 km
|
Land, ocean and
atmospheric products.
The latter include cloud and aerosol optical
depths and particle size information, as well
as cloud emissivity
and cloud-top-height |
|
AIRS/
AMSU-A/
HSB
|
Combination of
IR and microwave
sounders. Swath of ±50°,
resolution of IR sounder ~10 km. |
Temperature and
moisture profiles in
clear atmosphere. Some cloud properties. |
| AMSR-E |
6-channel microwave
radiometer.
1445-km swath, asymmetric FOV
with variable resolution from
~6 × 4 km (89 GHz) to 43 × 75
km
(6 GHz). |
LWP,
column water vapor,
liquid precipitation, principally confined
to ocean regions.
|
| CERES |
Broadband and
spectral radiances
converted to fluxes, resolutions at
nadir – 20 km.
|
TOA radiation
budget.
Primary product is time mean fluxes but
instantaneous fluxes are also produced. |
|
CloudSat
Lags Aqua by < 120 s
Launch: April 2006
|
94-GHz radar
(CPR) |
500-m vertical
range gates from
surface to 30 km. High sensitivity,
FOV approximately 1.4 km. |
Cloud profile
information, liquid and ice
water content profiles, precipitation. The
information is obtained by combining the
radar measurements with Aqua
measurements including MODIS and
AMSR-E as well as with the CALIPSO
lidar. |
|
CALIPSO
Lags CloudSat by 15 ± 2.5 s
Launch: April 2006 |
Lidar
(CALIOP) |
532- and 1064-nm
channels with
depolarization. FOV of
approximately 300- and 70-m
resolution. |
Cloud profile
information primarily of
upper-tropospheric clouds. Optical depth
of thin cirrus. Aerosol profiles with
attached optical depth estimates. Aerosol
information requires averaging over 10s
of kms especially in daylight. |
| IIR |
3-channel IR radiometer with
a
FOV of 1 km, swath 64 km.
|
Cirrus cloud optical
properties. |
|
PARASOL
Lags CALIPSO by ~2 min
Launch: December 2004
|
POLDER |
9-channel polarimeter
with
channels in the visible and near-
infrared. Resolution of 5 m, swath
of 400 km. |
Cloud and fine
mode aerosol optical
depths and particle sizes. |
|
Aura
Lags Aqua by ~15 min
Launch: July 2004
|
HIRDLS |
IR limb sounder. |
Trace gases and stratospheric
aerosol. |
| MLS |
Microwave limb
sounder. |
Trace gases, ice content of
thin uppertropospheric
cloud. |
| TES |
IR imaging spectrometer,
0.5 × 5 km resolution, narrow swath
and variable pointing. |
Trace gases, could
also provide high
spectral resolution data on clouds. |
| OMI |
UV grating spectrometer, 13
× 24 km
resolution. |
Ozone and aerosol
index. |
|
OCO
Preceeds Aqua by ~5 min
Launch: 2008
|
OCO |
Three grating spectrometers |
Global measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide |
Graphic courtesy of Angelita C. Kelly [NASA]