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PACD Introduction

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PACD Project

PremierEx Analysis of Campaign Data

 

 

Introduction

"PremierEx Analysis of Campaign Data" (PACD) is a research project funded by ESA-ESTEC and coordinated by IFAC-CNR, in collaboration with ISAC-CNR,  KIT and RAL.

The basic aim of the project is to perform the retrieval processing of limb-sounding measurements acquired by the MARSCHALS  (link a http://ga.ifac.cnr.it/ongoing-projects/marschals.html) instrument during a series of field campaigns executed with the M-55 Geophysica high altitudeplatform for the deployment of airborne precursors of the PREMIER instrumentation. PREMIER (Process Exploration through Measurement of Infrared and Millimetre-wave Emitted Radiation) is one of the three candidates selected in the frame of the third cycle of ESA Earth Explorer Core missions to enter Phase-A feasibility study. The primary scientific objective of the PREMIER mission is to gain a better understanding of the interaction processes linking atmospheric chemistry and dynamics with climate.

 

MARSCHALS was flown onboard the M-55 stratospheric aircraft, as precursor of PREMIER MWLS (mm-wave limb sounder), in a test campaign carried out at mid-latitude (Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany) in November 2009 (TC9 campaign) and in a scientific campaign in the Arctic region (Kiruna, Sweden), in March 2010 (PremierEx campaign). The instrument obtained useful data during the test flight of 04.11.2009 and during the scientific flight of 10.03.2010. The goal of the PACD activities is processing and exploitation of these two datasets.

 

The main tasks of the project include:

-          Adaptation of the retrieval code developed by IFAC-CNR to the new MARSCHALS data

-          Comparison between forward and retrieval models developed by RAL and IFAC-CNR

-          Retrieval of MARSCHALS data

-          Validation with correlative data

-          Synergistic combination of data in the mm-wave (MARSCHALS) and infrared (MIPAS-STR) region

-          Assessment of clouds

 

The project is organised in two phases. Phase 1 will be aiming at the analysis of data acquired by MARSCHALS during the PremierEx flight. Phase 2 will be focusing on the analysis of the TC9 flight data and, possibly, of a second scientific flight to be executed during a new campaign with the M-55 aircraft currently in preparation.