Aerosol and Ocean Science Expeditions (AEROSE): Dedicated marine soundings for CrIMSS and GOES-R proxy datasets

This work provides an overview of dedicated soundings acquired from ozonesondes and radiosondes launched over the tropical Atlantic Ocean during the ongoing PIRATA Northeast Extension (PNE) Aerosol and Ocean Science Expeditions (PNE/AEROSE) – intensive campaigns conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) onboard the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown, in collaboration with the Howard University NOAA Center for Atmospheric Sciences (NCAS). The AEROSE data complement has grown to become one of the most extensive collections of in situ measurements over the tropical Atlantic Ocean, conducted during spring and summer seasons over multiple years (2004, 2006-2009, and beyond). Sonde launches from the ship were timed to coincide with Aqua AIRS and MetOp IASI satellite overpass times, thereby providing dedicated radiosonde observations (RAOBs) for constructing empirical proxy datasets to be used for NPP/NPOESS CrIMSS validation. Furthermore, the AEROSE domain is located well within the scanning range of the Meteosat SEVIRI, and thus the RAOBs are also ideal for NOAA GOES-R ABI validation. Among other things, the AEROSE data are unique in their range of marine meteorological phenomena germane to the satellite missions in question, including dust and smoke outflows from Africa, the Saharan air layer (SAL), and tropospheric ozone. Data from the recent 2009 PNE/AEROSE-V campaign is highlighted.