Mid-Pacific ground-truth data for validation of the CrIMSS sensor suite aboard Suomi-NPP

The Aerospace Transportable Lidar System 2 (ATLS-2) provides ground truth data for the testing and evaluation of instruments aboard environmental satellites. The Aerospace ground-truth data consist of collocated state-of-the art lidar and radiosonde observations (RAOBs). The lidar system consists of a pulsed UV transmitter, 36-inch collection telescope, and detection channels for water Raman, nitrogen Raman, and Rayleigh/Mie scattering. All channels are separated into two altitude bins to improve the dynamic range of the system. Dedicated balloon-borne radiosondes are Vaisala RS-92, processed with the current version of the Digicora-III software. The synergy between the Raman lidar data and radiosonde data produce high accuracy, quality-controlled vertical profiles of humidity (0 – 20 km) and temperature (0 – 60 km). Starting in May 2012, The Aerospace Corporation has exercised ATLS-2 to collect dedicated ground truth data sets in support of calibration and validation (cal/val) efforts for the Cross-track Infrared and Microwave Sounding Suite (CrIMSS) aboard the Suomi-National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite. Data sets are collected from the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) on the west coast of Kauai and are timed to be coincident with S-NPP overpasses. The Aerospace PMRF datasets complement the ensemble of similar datasets collected from DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) and NOAA Aerosols and Ocean Science Expedition (AEROSE) sites, which are compared to CrIMSS Environmental Data Records (EDRs) by the NOAA/NESDIS/STAR cal/val team for validation of algorithm performance and algorithm improvement. In addition to providing the only dedicated CrIMSS data in the mid-pacific, The Aerospace Corporation was the first site to provide ground truth data to the EDR cal/val team. As a result, ATLS-2 data sets served as the initial benchmarks for EDR performance testing. Details of the ATLS-2 system and data products as well as comparisons with CrIMSS EDRs will be presented.