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3D Radiative Transfer Effects in Multi-Angle/Multi-Spectral Radio-Polarimetric Signals from a Mixture of Clouds and Aerosols Viewed by a Non-Imaging SensorWhen observing a spatially complex mix of aerosols and clouds in a single relatively large field-of-view, nature entangles their signals non-linearly through polarized radiation transport processes that unfold in the 3D position and direction spaces. In contrast, any practical forward model in a retrieval algorithm will use only 1D vector radiative transfer (vRT) in a linear mixing technique. We assess the difference between the observed and predicted signals using synthetic data from a high-fidelity 3D vRT model with clouds generated using a Large Eddy Simulation model and an aerosol climatology. We find that this difference is signal--not noise--for the Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS), an instrument developed by NASA. Moreover, the worst case scenario is also the most interesting case, namely, when the aerosol burden is large, hence hase the most impact on the cloud microphysics and dynamics. Based on our findings, we formulate a mitigation strategy for these unresolved cloud adjacency effects assuming that some spatial information is available about the structure of the clouds at higher resolution from "context" cameras, as was planned for NASA's ill-fated Glory mission that was to carry the APS but failed to reach orbit. Application to POLDER (POLarization and Directionality of Earth Reflectances) data from the period when PARASOL (Polarization and Anisotropy of Reflectances for Atmospheric Sciences coupled with Observations from a Lidar) was in the A-train is briefly discussed.
Document ID
20150007827
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
External Source(s)
Authors
Davis, Anthony B.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Garay, Michael J.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Xu, Feng
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Qu, Zheng
(Raytheon Co. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Emde, Claudia
(Ludwig-Maximilians-Univ. Munich, Germany)
Date Acquired
May 8, 2015
Publication Date
August 25, 2013
Subject Category
Geophysics
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Meeting Information
Meeting: SPIE 2013 Polarization Science and Remote Sensing Conference
Location: San Diego, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: August 25, 2013
End Date: August 29, 2013
Sponsors: International Society for Optical Engineering
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
APS
satellite mission
cloud contamination
3D vector radiative transfer
PARASOL
Glory satellite mission
ACE satellite mission
aerosol remote sensing
1D vector radiative transfer
POLDER
unresolved cloud adjacency effects

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