The CALIPSO-CloudSat Validation Experiment (CC-VEx) was an airborne campaign designed to support the calibration and validation of two satellite missions: the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) and CloudSat. CC-VEx had a single deployment during summer 2006, primarily based out of Warner Robins, GA. NASA’s ER-2 and B-200 aircraft, along with Weather Modification Inc.’s LearJet, were equipped with remote sensing and in situ instruments to observe aerosol and cloud layers. CC-VEx was funded through NASA's Radiation Sciences Program.
2006-07-24 — 2006-08-14
Eastern United States, Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico
boreal summer
N: 40°N
S: 23°N
W: 98°W
E: 75°W
no campaign DOI available
Additional Notes
This was a validation campaign for the CALIPSO and CloudSat satellite missions.
The High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) is an airborne lidar system developed at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). It uses the HSRL technique at 532 nm and the standard backscatter technique at 1064 nm to provide profile measurements of aerosol backscatter, extinction, and depolarization. The profiles of aerosol backscatter and depolarization typically have a vertical resolution of 30 m and a horizontal resolution of about 1 km. For the extinction profiles, the vertical resolution is 300 m with a horizontal resolution of approximately 6 km. HSRL is usually flown during investigations to validate observations from the CALIPSO spaceborne lidar.
The Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) is an airborne lidar system designed specifically to provide multi-wavelength measurements of cirrus clouds, sub-visual cirrus clouds, and aerosols. It measures lidar backscatter at three wavelengths: 355 nm, 532 nm, and 1064 nm. These measurements can be used to determine cloud optical depth, particle size distribution, extinction profiles, aerosol layers, and other properties. CPL has a vertical resolution of 30 m and a typical horizontal resolution of 200 m. It has a measurement sampling rate of 1 Hz.
The MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS) is an airborne multispectral spectrometer designed to simulate the satellite instrument Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS). MAS operates over 50 spectral channels in the 0.55 to 14.2 μm range, providing high-resolution images of clouds and surface features. It has a horizontal spatial resolution of 50 meters and a swath width of about 36 kilometers at an altitude of 20 km at nadir. Its scan rate is 6.25 Hz, with each scan line containing 716 pixels.
The Cloud Radar System (CRS) is an airborne W-band (94 GHz) polarimetric Doppler radar designed for the NASA ER-2 aircraft. CRS provides radar observations of clouds and precipitation from the surface to the lower stratosphere. It has a horizontal resolution of 150 m and a horizontal sampling interval of 50 m. Its vertical resolution is 100 m with a vertical sampling interval of 37.5 m.
