A90
Beechcraft King Air A90

The Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO) is an airborne system of remote sensing instruments used to measure snow properties such as snow albedo, snow depth, and snow water equivalent. ASO includes a CASI 1500 imaging spectrometer and a Riegl Q1560 scanning lidar. The CASI spectrometer operates across the 380-1050 nm range and is employed to retrieve spectral albedo. The Riegl Q1560 lidar functions at the 1064 nm wavelength and measures surface elevation to determine snow depths. Snow depth measurements are provided at spatial resolutions of 3m and 50m, while snow water equivalent measurements are available only at a 50m resolution.

The Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager (CASI) is an airborne push-broom imaging spectrometer developed by Itres Research Ltd. CASI measures reflectance in the visible/near-infrared (VNIR) spectral region, which can be used to derive vegetation characteristics. It operates in the 430-870 nm spectral range and has a 35-degree field of view (FOV). CASI has a cross-track ground resolution of 1.23 meters at 1 km altitude above ground level (AGL). The along-track resolution depends on the integration time and the aircraft speed. CASI has a frame rate of 85 lines per second.

The Goddards’ LiDAR Hyperspectral & Thermal Imager (G-LiHT) is a portable, airborne imaging system developed at Goddard Space Flight Center. It uses multiple sensors to simultaneously map terrestrial ecosystems' composition, structure, and function. G-LiHT consists of a scanning lidar, profiling lidar, irradiance spectrometer, imaging spectrometer, and a thermal camera. The scanning lidar operates at 1550 nm wavelength and has a swath width of 387 m, while the profiling lidar operates at the 905 nm wavelength. The irradiance spectrometer has a spectral range of 350-1,100 nm and an acquisition rate of 1 Hz, while the imaging spectrometer has a spectral range of 420-950 nm and an acquisition rate of 50 Hz. The thermal camera has a spectral range of 8-14 μm, a swath width of 173 m, and an acquisition rate of 25 Hz. Data products from G-LiHT have a spatial resolution of 1 meter.

The Rapid OZone Experiment (ROZE) is an airborne in situ instrument that measures ozone levels in the troposphere and lower stratosphere. It employs the incoherent broadband cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy (IBBCEAS) technique to determine ozone concentrations in the sampled volume. ROZE utilizes a light-emitting diode (LED) in the ultraviolet (UV) spectrum at 265 nm. ROZE operates with a measurement sampling rate of 10 Hz and an accuracy of 6.2%.

The Picarro gas concentration analyzer is an in situ airborne or ground-based sensor manufactured by Picarro, Inc. It uses Wavelength-Scanned Cavity Ring Spectroscopy (WS-CRDS) to measure trace gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and water vapor. For carbon dioxide measurements, the laser within Picarro operates at 1603 nm wavelength, while 1651 nm wavelength is used for methane and water vapor measurements. Picarro has a typical sampling time of 2.5 seconds. Depending on the model, Picarro can also provide measurements of carbon isotopes for gas concentrations.

The Aircraft-Integrated Meteorological Measurement System (AIMMS) is an in situ airborne sensor developed by Aventech Research, Inc. It measures the aircraft's position, altitude, temperature, relative humidity, static pressure, and three-dimensional wind vector. The system includes an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), Global Positioning System (GPS), Air Data Probe (ADP), and a central processing module (CPM) for processing the GPS data. AIMMS provides data at a rate of up to 20 Hz and can operate in temperatures ranging from -20 to 50 degrees Celsius.