An Overview of the AOS Storm Mission and Potential Synergy with Geostationary Observations

Aerosols, especially smoke and dust, have strong diurnal emission characteristics that influence long-range transport, weather, climate, and air quality. While the new generation of spaceborne multispectral radiometer and spectrometer sensors in geostationary (GEO) orbit provide critical diurnally resolved column aerosol properties, these sensors are limited in providing aerosol vertical distributions and planetary boundary layer (PBL) height information. Thus, the vertical variations of aerosols and PBL height as a function of local time are still poorly understood. The Atmosphere Observing System (AOS) has been established as part of NASA’s new Earth System Observatory (ESO) to fulfill the aerosol, cloud, convection, and precipitation science needs presented in the 2017 Earth Science Decadal Survey. The selected AOS architecture encompasses sensors in two orbit planes, one of which utilizes an inclined orbit (nominally ~55 degrees at a 430 km altitude, launch in 2029) and one in a polar, sun-synchronous orbit (450 km altitude, 1330 ascending node, launch in 2031).

The AOS Storm (inclined) project provides near simultaneous collocated observations of the profiles of precipitation, vertical air motions, thin clouds, and aerosols, that will reveal, for the first time, convective and aerosol processes under different phases of the diurnal cycle and thus shed light on one of the most fundamental modes of variability of the climate system. AOS Storm includes a backscatter lidar called the Atmospheric Lidar Instruments for Cloud and Aerosol Transport (ALICAT), a Ku-band Doppler radar, and two identical passive microwave radiometers that provide time-differenced measurements. AOS Storm observations of PBL height and aerosol extinction profiles are highly complementary to the emergent constellation of GEO sensors for weather, atmospheric composition, and air quality. This talk will provide an overview of the AOS Storm mission and synergy with GEO sensors.