ARM data as a resource for validation of NASA PACE cloud retrievals: results from proxy sensors

Description

NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission (https://pace.gsfc.nasa.gov) will launch in January 2024 and continue and improve on satellite data records in its eponymous domains. The mission will carry a broad-swath hyperspectral imager, OCI, which will provide heritage-type cloud retrieval data products (i.e. a cloud mask, top height, visible optical thickness, droplet effective radius, phase, and derived water path). It will also carry two multi-angle polarimeters (HARP2 and SPEXone) which will not only provide the above but also enable retrievals of additional cloud properties (e.g. droplet effective variance, ice crystal asymmetry parameter).

Validating satellite-based cloud retrievals is challenging. We plan to use several ARM data streams to evaluate PACE cloud data products, and are prototyping our validation analyses using proxy retrievals from MODIS on the Aqua satellite and OLCI on the Sentinel-3A satellite. This poster showcases how we plan to use ARM data to evaluate liquid water path (using MWRRET) and cloud top height retrievals (using KARZASRCL), with example results from these proxy sensors and ARM data from the SGP, ENA, and NSA permanent sites. We welcome any comments from and collaborations with members of the ARM community on how we can each get the most out of our respective data streams.