Development of an advanced radar and lidar platform suite for interdisciplinary airborne and ground-based gemote-sensing research

Interdisciplinary research is required to advance the understanding of atmospheric phenomena, the water cycle, the earth radiation budget, and the transport and production of chemical species. The Community Airborne Platform Remote-sensing Interdisciplinary Suite (CAPRIS) would permit an unprecedented combination of coincident observations of precipitation, winds, cloud microphysics, water vapor, ozone, vegetation and aerosol at a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. These measurements would be made in conjunction with a wealth of in situ sensors available on the NSF/NCAR C-130 and G-V (HIAPER) aircraft. The design would also permit the deployment of lidars and radars in a ground-based transportable mode for further flexibility.

CAPRIS is envisioned to consist of a CM wave phase array radar, MM wave pod mounted radar, and a suite of lidars to measure wind, water vapor, ozone, vegetation canopy and aerosol/clouds. The four phased array antennas of the centimeter radar will be mounted on the exterior of the C-130 aircraft. Consideration is being given to X- and/ or C-band wavelengths for this component of the system. The centimeter radar can only be flown on the C-130 aircraft. The millimeter radar will consist of both W- and Ka-band wavelengths mounted in a wing pod that can be deployed on either C-130 or G-V and potentially other airborne platforms that can carry the pod.

A suite of lidars is being also being considered for development on CAPRIS to meet the needs of several different disciplines. All lidars will operate outside of the retinal hazard region for eye safety and future ground-based operations. A brief description of the CAPRIS measurement capabilities, technical description and development plans will be presented Please visit the CAPRIS home page; (http://www.eol.ucar.edu/development/capris/) for additional details.

We will present the scientific justification for CAPRIS along with an overview of technical approach taken, system deployment on airborne and ground based platforms and the kinds of data we expect to gather. We will describe the community involvement in developing the CAPRIS concept and the timeframe that would be required develop and implement this system as a NSF facility to be accessed by the science community.