WMO OSCAR | Details for Instrument AOS-Lidar

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Instrument: AOS-Lidar

Instrument details

Acronym	AOS-Lidar
Full name	Atmosphere Observing System-Lidar
Purpose	For profiling of aerosols and thin ice clouds
Short description	Nadir viewing 532 nm (polarization-sensitive), 1064 nm (polarization sensitive) lidar
Background	New development
Scanning Technique	Nadir viewing
Resolution	350m footprint, 30m vertical
Coverage / Cycle
Mass		Power	Data Rate

Providing Agency	NASA
Instrument Maturity	Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period:	2031 to 2036
Last update:	2023-10-30

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

Atmosphere Observing System (NASA)
- AOS-Sky (see instrument status) Jan 2031 - 2036

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 Extinction Coefficient
Aerosol Optical Depth
Aerosol column burden
Aerosol type
Cloud ice

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.

Variable	Relevance for measuring this variable	Operational limitations	Explanation
Aerosol column burden*	2 - very high	Cloud sensitive.. Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Aerosol effective radius	2 - very high	Cloud sensitive.. Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Aerosol mass mixing ratio	2 - very high	Cloud sensitive.. Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Aerosol Optical Depth*	2 - very high	Cloud sensitive.. Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Aerosol type*	2 - very high	Cloud sensitive.. Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Cloud drop effective radius	5 - marginal	Low-density cloud only.. Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Cloud ice*	2 - very high	Low-density cloud only.. Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Cloud ice Total Column	2 - very high	Low-density cloud only.. Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Cloud ice effective radius	5 - marginal	Low-density cloud only.. Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Cloud liquid water (CLW)	4 - fair	Low-density cloud only.. Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Cloud liquid water (CLW) total column	4 - fair	Low-density cloud only.. Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Cloud optical depth	1 - primary	Low-density cloud only.. Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Cloud top height	1 - primary	Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Freezing level height in clouds	2 - very high	Low-density cloud only.. Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar. Detected as discontinuity
Height of the top of PBL	2 - very high	Cloud sensitive.. Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Height of the tropopause	2 - very high	Cloud sensitive.. Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Melting layer depth in clouds	2 - very high	Low-density cloud only.. Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar. Detected as discontinuity
PSC occurrence	1 - primary	Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Aerosol volcanic ash	2 - very high	Cloud sensitive.. Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column	2 - very high	Cloud sensitive.. Along-track only.	VIS/NIR backscatter lidar