CCAP

Cirrus Clouds and Aerosol Properties Campaign

20 November 2013 - 24 November 2013

Lead Scientist: Shadrian Strong

Observatory: SGP (Southern Great Plains)

Through the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Characterization of Cirrus and Aerosol Properties (CCAP) program, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab has developed a methodology to examine the microphysical properties of high-altitude cirrus clouds and aerosols and assess their impact on both remotely-sensed and ground-based retrieved atmospheric radiances. We have been performing seasonal and regional measurements with ground-based micro pulse lidars and a sun photometer coincident with satellite observations. The emphasis has been to examine the microphysical properties of cirrus and aerosols and identify atmospheric compensation techniques to improve satellite imagery from the visible - long-wave infrared wavelengths. We brought our current instrumentation to the ARM SGP site in order to gather additional coincident observations of cirrus and aerosols and validate our ground-based instrument retrievals.