A90
Beechcraft King Air A90

The Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO) is an airborne remote sensing system that measures snow properties, including 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 380-1050 nm and is used to retrieve spectral albedo. The Riegl Q1560 lidar operates at 1064 nm and measures surface elevation to determine snow depth. Snow depth measurements are provided at spatial resolutions of 3m and 50m, while snow water equivalent measurements are available only at 50m.

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, enabling derivation of vegetation characteristics. It operates in the 430-870 nm 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 integration time and 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 the composition, structure, and function of terrestrial ecosystems. G-LiHT includes a scanning lidar, a profiling lidar, an irradiance spectrometer, an imaging spectrometer, and a thermal camera. The scanning lidar operates at 1550 nm with a swath width of 387 m, while the profiling lidar operates at 905 nm. The irradiance spectrometer has a spectral range of 350-1,100 nm and an acquisition rate of 1 Hz, whereas the imaging spectrometer covers 420-950 nm at 50 Hz. The thermal camera covers 8-14 μm, has a swath width of 173 m, and an acquisition rate of 25 Hz. G-LiHT data have a spatial resolution of 1 meter.

The Rapid OZone Experiment (ROZE) is an airborne in situ instrument that measures ozone concentrations 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 uses a light-emitting diode (LED) at 265 nm in the ultraviolet (UV) spectrum. ROZE operates at a sampling rate of 10 Hz with 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 operates at 1603 nm, while 1651 nm 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) that processes GPS data. AIMMS provides data at rates up to 20 Hz and operates over a temperature range of -20 to 50 degrees Celsius.