2010 NOAA Aerosol and Ocean Science Expedition (AEROSE) CrIMSS marine proxy dataset

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 Expedition (PNE/AEROSE) 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 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, 2006-2010, and potentially beyond). Ship based sonde launches have been timed to coincide with Aqua AIRS and MetOp IASI satellite overpass times, thereby providing dedicated radiosonde observations (RAOBs) as correlative data for constructing empirical proxy datasets to be used for pre-launch NPP/JPSS CrIMSS environmental data record (EDR) validation (see Barnet et al., this session). 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 tropical water vapor distribution, and tropospheric ozone dynamics. In the current work, CrIMSS proxy data from the most recent May 2010 PNE/AEROSE-VI campaign is highlighted.