The GSFC Lidar Observation and Validation Experiment (GLOVE) was a NASA campaign to validate ICESat-2 and EarthCARE data products and test the new Roscoe lidar receiver alignment. GLOVE involved a single deployment based out of Edwards Air Force Base in California in February 2025. The NASA ER-2 aircraft was equipped with the Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL), enhanced MODIS Airborne Simulator (eMAS), Cloud Radar System (CRS), and Roscoe, a more compact version of CPL. GLOVE collected radar and lidar measurements of cloud and aerosol properties to validate satellite observations.
2025-02-03 — 2025-02-20
Southern California, Western United States, Pacific Ocean
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 Enhanced MODIS Airborne Simulator (eMAS) is an airborne cross-track scanning spectrometer operated by the Airborne Sensor Facility (ASF) at NASA Ames Research Center. eMAS captures high-resolution imagery of cloud and surface features, which can be used to develop and test algorithms for MODIS satellite observations. It operates across 38 spectral channels covering wavelengths from 0.445 to 14.1 µm and has a scan rate of 6.25 Hz. eMAS offers a spatial resolution of 50 meters and a swath width of 37.25 kilometers at an altitude of 20 kilometers.
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.
Roscoe is an airborne aerosol and cloud lidar system. It is a more compact version of the Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) developed by Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). It was designed to observe both upwards and downwards from the aircraft to collect profile measurements of attenuated backscatter and aerosol/cloud optical properties. Roscoe operates at 355 nm and 1064 nm wavelengths and has a resolution of 200 m. It has a temporal resolution of 1 second.
