Numerical Model Generation of Test Frames for Pre-launch Studies of EarthCARE’s Retrieval Algorithms and Data Management System

• Main Authors: Qu, Zhipeng, Donovan, David P., Barker, Howard W., Cole, Jason N. S., Shephard, Mark W., Huijnen, Vincent
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Baja; Greenland; Nunavut; Pacific
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-300; https://amt.copernicus.org/preprints/amt-2022-300/

The Earth Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) satellite consists of active and passive sensors whose observations will be acted on by an array of retrieval algorithms. Earth-CARE’s retrieval algorithms have undergone pre-launch verifications within a virtual observing system that consists of 3D atmosphere-surface data produced by the Global Environmental Multi-scale (GEM) NWP model, and instrument simulators that when applied to NWP data yield syn-thetic observations for EarthCARE’s four sensors. Retrieval algorithms operate on the synthetic observations and their estimates go into radiative transfer models that produce top-of-atmosphere solar and thermal broadband radiative quantities, which are compared to synthetic broadband measurements thus mimicking EarthCARE’s radiative closure assessment. Three high-resolution test frames were simulated; each measures ~6,200 km along-track by 200 km across-track. Hori-zontal grid-spacing is 250 m and there are 57 atmospheric layers up to 10 mb. The frames span wide ranges of conditions and extend over: i) Greenland to The Caribbean crossing a cold front off Nova Scotia; ii) Nunavut to Baja California crossing over Colorado’s Rooky Mountains; and iii) central equatorial Pacific Ocean that includes a mesoscale convective system. This report discusses how the test frames were produced and presents their key geophysical features. All data are publicly available and, owing to their high-resolution, could be used to simulate observations for other measurement systems.