SeaBASS

DOI

10.5067/SeaBASS/PVST_AIRSHARP/DATA001

Description

We will have combined airborne and field sampling at PACE overpass time over two sampling periods October 2024 and May 2025, spanning a wide range of aerosol and ocean states for Monterey Bay, California. Likely potential aerosol conditions include, but not limited to, maritime aerosol, wildfire smoke, long range Asian dust transport, and clear air (Zhao et al., 2013, Lewis et al., 2010, Mardi et al., 2018, Allan et al., 2004, VanCuren 2003). Expected maritime conditions include, but are not limited to, low productivity cold waters, algal blooms, riverine outflow, and turbid waters. The study site has dramatic conditions exacerbated by the changing climate and a recent history of significant fire seasons (Filoncyk et al., 2022), extreme precipitation conditions, namely drought, atmospheric rivers and subsequent changes in riverine outflow, and other climate change impacts such as harmful algal blooms and far-reaching riverine plumes. We achieve PACE validation with hyperspectral (e.g., HyperPro II water optical profiling and 4STAR-B atmospheric transmittance) and aligned contemporary radiometric measurements (C-AIR water-leaving radiance from aircraft and C-OPS water optical profiling). The latter contemporary ocean color detectors have much higher dynamic range than OCI. This unique combination of airborne and surface and profiling instrumentation and water sampling can provide high-accuracy validation of the PACE mission sensors in a globally-representative range of oceanic conditions. The repeated airborne observations can provide the calibration and validation over larger areas and time by collecting measurements over a larger spatial domain during a satellite overpass and different seasons, overcoming the problem of limited spatial coverage presented by using solely ship stations and moored buoy systems.