BackForwardInstrument:  ACE Lidar 

Instrument details
Acronym ACE Lidar
Full name Aerosol-Cloud Ecosystems Lidar
Purpose Aerosol and clouds profiling
Short description Three-wavelengths backscatter lidar (355, 532 and 1064 nm). Details TBD
Background Follow-on of CALIOP flown on CALIPSO.
Scanning Technique TBD
Resolution
Coverage / Cycle
Mass Power Data Rate

 

Providing Agency NASA
Instrument Maturity Demonstration pending
Utilization Period: TBD
Last update: 2016-11-10
Detailed characteristics
Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Instrument classification
  • Earth observation instrument
  • Active and radio-occultation sensor
  • Lidar (Doppler lidar, backscatter lidar, lidar Dial, lidar altimeter)
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 2
  • Lidar (Doppler and dual/triple-frequency backscatter)
  • Lidar (Backscatter - for atmosphere)
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Aerosol Optical Depth
  • Aerosol column burden
  • Aerosol effective radius
  • Aerosol mass mixing ratio
  • Aerosol type
  • Aerosol volcanic ash
  • Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column
  • Cloud optical depth
  • Cloud top height
  • Height of the top of PBL
  • Height of the tropopause
Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Aerosol column burden*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Along-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Aerosol effective radius*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Along-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Aerosol mass mixing ratio*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Along-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Aerosol Optical Depth*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Along-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Aerosol type*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Along-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Cloud drop effective radius5 - marginalLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Cloud ice2 - very highLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Cloud ice Total Column2 - very highLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Cloud ice effective radius5 - marginalLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Cloud liquid water (CLW)4 - fairLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Cloud liquid water (CLW) total column4 - fairLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Cloud optical depth*1 - primaryLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Cloud top height*1 - primaryAlong-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Freezing level height in clouds2 - very highLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar. Detected as discontinuity
Height of the top of PBL*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Along-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Height of the tropopause*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Along-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Melting layer depth in clouds2 - very highLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar. Detected as discontinuity
PSC occurrence1 - primaryAlong-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Aerosol volcanic ash*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Along-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Along-track only.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar