A Trade Study on the Temperature and Moisture Vertical Information Content from Infrared Sounding

Of the candidate passive measurements highlighted in the PBL incubation study report, hyperspectral (spectral resolution <= 1 cm⁻¹ ) IR sounders have perhaps the greatest potential to provide high spatial resolution in clear sky conditions with sufficient vertical resolution within the PBL. However, current IR instruments have difficulty observing profiles with sharp thermodynamic gradients, where vertical resolution as fine as 100 meters is needed. Previous studies have shown that higher spectral resolution and lower noise could improve the thermodynamic vertical resolution in many cases. However, this work lacked three important details in order to make a full recommendation on a future IR instrument. These are: 1. It lacked an appropriate accounting of all the error sources (e.g. surface, RTA, temperature and trace gas profile errors) that will affect the thermodynamic vertical resolution for an IR retrieval. 2. It was not clear from this work what spectral range and resolution is necessary to return sufficient information. 3. The information content analysis did not cover enough of the domain from the LES simulations, especially in partially cloudy scenes, and there are more regimes to be tested. This study will address the shortcomings of the previous work listed above, and will provide a quantitative analysis of the PBL information provided by potential future hyperspectral IR measurements.

Maturation of observing systems, instrument technology, and measurement concepts for Planetary Boundary Layer and Surface Topography and Vegetation

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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