WHy2MSIE

My Role

• Participated in NASA planetary boundary-layer (PBL) mission prototype by operating CLAMPS-1 (OU), CLAMPS-2 (NSSL), and deploying CopterSondes during NASA ER-2 aircraft overflights.
• Led coordination of these deployments and oversaw data collection.

WHyMSIE (Westcoast & Heartland Hyperspectral Microwave Sensor Intensive Experiment)

Our operations were based on the WHyMSIE project’s ER2 overflight schedule and flight plan. The Plan of the Day (POD) can accessed via Github.. Our team was activated to fly UAS when the ER-2 aircraft flew over our region!

Our science role?

Combined Retrievals (Thermodynamic Profiles)

• Bottom-up + top-down retrieval pairing
• What can we get by using ground-based and airborne-spaceborne radiative perspectives from similar observing systems in a retrieval framework?
• Mixed observations as constraints

Model→Obs and Obs→Model Development

• Observing system experiments (OSE)
• Observing system simulation experiments (OSSE)
• Developing requirements and design concepts for next generation observing networks, including cost-efficacy

Radar-based boundary-layer height estimation *Methods evaluation and development *Possible collaboration with new groups and integration of new datasets to this work

What is WHyMSIE?

The 2017 Decadal Survey, and subsequent PBL study team and NASA Decadal Survey Incubation (DSI) program prioritize the need for improved PBL observations for Earth Science and societal benefit and recommend a decadal path of ‘PBL incubation’ towards a future spaceborne mission. Critical uncertainties and knowledge gaps remain, associated with the PBL thermodynamics (i.e., temperature and water vapor profiles), PBL evolution and dynamics (e.g., PBL height, wind), measurement accuracy and the key processes and scales necessary for fully characterizing the PBL. It is recognized that no single sensor can achieve these observations at the necessary accuracy and scales for transformative PBL science applications. Rather, a dedicated PBL observing system with a ‘system of systems’ approach, that leverages spaceborne, airborne, and ground-based technology, models, and observations is needed to provide a comprehensive global and routine monitoring of the PBL and its complex processes and evolution.

In preparation for this grand challenge, WHyMSIE (Westcoast & Heartland Hyperspectral Microwave Sensor Intensive Experiment) is the very first step forward towards an integrated, intelligent, and affordable PBL observing system of systems. It will bring together multiple observing nodes – i.e., space, suborbital, and ground – from passive and active sensors to enable a comprehensive and coherent picture of essential PBL thermodynamic variables such as temperature, water vapor, height, and hydrometeors to provide new understanding of the PBL that is not possible with any single sensor, observational approach, or scale.

Through a partnership between NASA and NOAA, this field campaign will demonstrate the first-of-its-kind hyperspectral microwave airborne measurements (CoSMIR-H) and will be complemented by other passive (infrared, visible) and active (lidar) sensors onboard the NASA ER-2 aircraft. Serving as a future NASA planetary boundary-layer (PBL) mission prototype, WHyMSIE aims to capture a wide variety of thermodynamic, moisture, and PBL regimes across a variety of surface types. The ER-2 will be flying over a variety of land and ocean environments. Over land, the aircraft will maximize validation opportunities by overflying radiosonde launch sites as well as locations with PBL relevant ground-based in situ and remote sensing measurements. We will overflying the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) Central Facility (CF) with high frequency ensure maximum scientific value for understanding and validating the retrieved temperature and water vapor profiles from the WHyMSIE instrument payload. Over water, we aim to capture a wide range of temperature and water vapor conditions, with a specific focus on clear sky scenes for high quality comparisons with program of record (POR) satellite instruments (e.g. ATMS, AMSU). Comparing hyperspectral microwave retrievals from CoSMIR-H with in situ temperature and humidity information will allow for scientific advancement of remote-sensing techniques into the hyperspectral microwave era and improved understanding of the PBL at different measurement scales.

Payload

WHyMSIE payload collects a total of eight instruments, as described in Table 1. The spatial resolution specifications reported in the table are referred to the ER-2 aircraft which will fly at an altitude of 20km. WHyMSIE will occur during two weeks in July 2024, to execute engineering test flights of CoSMIR-H and MBARS. Four additional weeks of flight will occur in October and November 2024 using the complete payload deployment.

Conceived as a companion experiment for validation of WHyMSIE, the Active and Passive Profiling EXperiment (APEX) will deploy the High Altitude Lidar Observatory (HALO) on board of the G-III aircraft and the Aerosol Doppler Wind Lidar (AWP) as a piggy-back instrument for additional contextual information on wind fields. HALO will provide vertical profiles of water vapor, aerosol and cloud optical properties at a data rate of 2 Hz. HALO has a nominal spatial resolution of 6-12 km horizontally and 315 m vertically at an altitude of 10-12 km. The GIII will under-fly the ER-2 in different PBL regimes to evaluate information content of different sensors and develop an ideal dataset to enable active/passive retrievals of water vapor and temperature profiles and improved quantification of PBL heights.