Global aerosol distribution from the GLAS polar orbiting lidar instrument

Author

Spinhirne, J.D. ; Palm, S.P. ; Hlavka, D.L. ; Hart, W.D. ; Welton, E.J.

Author_Institution

Lab. for Atmospheres, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/912, Greenbelt, MD, USA

fYear

2005

Firstpage

2

Lastpage

8

Abstract

The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) launched in 2003 has provided the first global aerosol profiling from space. GLAS is a two wavelength nadir viewing instrument. The measurement requirement to profile all radiatively significant aerosol layers has been exceeded. Data processing algorithms have provided aerosol scattering cross section profiles, boundary detection and height for all aerosol layers, aerosol optical depth and extinction cross section for data from 2003. The data products are openly available to the global science community.

Keywords

aerosols; atmospheric techniques; geophysical signal processing; optical radar; remote sensing by laser beam; spaceborne radar; GLAS polar orbiting lidar instrument; Geoscience Laser Altimeter System; aerosol layer height; aerosol optical depth; aerosol profiling; aerosol scattering cross section profiles; boundary detection; data processing; extinction cross section; global aerosol distribution; radiatively significant aerosol layers; two wavelength nadir viewing instrument; Aerosols; Atmospheric measurements; Atmospheric waves; Extraterrestrial measurements; Instruments; Laser radar; Optical receivers; Optical surface waves; Pollution measurement; Satellites;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Remote Sensing of Atmospheric Aerosols, 2005. IEEE Workshop on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-9109-8

Electronic_ISBN

0-7803-9110-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERSOL.2005.1494140

Filename

1494140