2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

CALIPSO:
Caribbean Validation Mission
Science Focus: Atmospheric Composition
Sponsor: H. Maring NASA HQ
Location: Caribbean
The LaRC King Air B-200
deployed the High Spectral
Resolution Lidar (HSRL) to the
Caribbean islands from January
22 through February 3, 2008, for
validation of the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with
Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) data
products from the CALIPSO satellite mission.
A flight track map for this mission is shown in
Figure 15 (p. 30).
The goal of the science flights was to
acquire lidar data with the HSRL to verify
the effectiveness of new daytime calibration
algorithms being applied to data from the
CALIOP lidar. The day calibration algorithms
had been adjusted to account for lidar
transmit-to-receiver boresight misalignment
that occurred as the satellite was heated by
the sun on the day side of the orbit. The
errors were most pronounced in January in
the Northern Hemisphere and peaked near
15° N latitude. The campaign was designed
to acquire data from 7° N to 37° N to verify
the performance of the correction algorithms
over the latitude range where gradients
in the boresight-induced errors were the
greatest.
The Caribbean region was chosen for
the mission based on logistical concerns:
achieving the required latitude coverage
within the range/duration envelope of the
B200. An “island-hopping” strategy was
employed to optimally cover the CALIPSO
satellite orbit tracks. Temporary bases of
operation were located in San Juan, Puerto
Rico, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, and
Barbados. The mission, with a total of 13
science flights (42 flight hours), successfully
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