Integrated Ground-Based and Satellite Remote Sensing of the Earth’s Surface and Atmosphere in East and West Antarctica with Lidar and Radiometric Systems

We have developed remote ground-based and satellite methods and hardware and software for studying atmospheric aerosols, clouds, and the underlying surface in Eastern and Western Antarctica. The ground-based equipment includes: (1) a CIMEL solar spectrum photometer, which measures the spectrum of solar radiation transmitted and scattered by the atmosphere, (2) a multi-wavelength Raman lidar, which measures the vertical backscatter profile, (3) an albedometer, which measures the spectral albedo of the surface, primarily snow, and (4) a reflectometer, which measures the directional spectral reflectance of snow. The ground-based measurement data were integrated with data from satellite radiometers MODIS or OLCI and the satellite lidar CALIOP. A synergy of the manifold data results in retrieval of various atmosphere and surface characteristics such as the aerosol optical depth, profiles of concentration of the fine and coarse aerosol fractions, spatial distribution of the effective snow grain size, fraction of outcrops, etc