Seminário do Laboratório de Física da Atmosfera
Vanderlei Martins,
Department of Physics, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Wednesday, 11/July/2018, 11am, Ed. Basílio Jafet, sala 105
Title:
THE HARP HYPERANGULAR IMAGING POLARIMETER AND THE NEED FOR SMALL SATELLITE PAYLOADS WITH HIGH SCIENCE PAYOFF FOR EARTH SCIENCE REMOTE SENSING
ABSTRACT:
The largest uncertainties on estimating climate change revolve around the lack of quantitative information on aerosol and cloud microphysical properties, which limits our understanding of cloud-aerosol interaction processes and cloud feedbacks in the climate system. Part of this limitation comes from the small number of global satellite sensors which in turn only measures a restricted subset of aerosol and cloud microphysical properties. Enabling small satellites to perform high quality cloud and aerosol microphysical measurements is an important pathway to resolve this puzzle. The reduced cost of small satellites can enable the use of multiple platforms or even constellations to increase spatial and temporal coverage for the required measurements.
The HARP (HyperAngular Rainbow Polarimeter) is a 3U CubeSat sensor designed for the measurement of aerosol, clouds and surface properties with a wide FOV that enables nearly global coverage from multiple wavelengths and tens of different along track viewing angles. The technology developed for HARP allows for all these characteristics to be packaged within the envelope of a CubeSat sensor while preserving strict science requirements.
