Persistent EarthCARE underflight studies of the ITCZ and organized convection (PERCUSION): contribution to EarthCARE validation
8 affiliations
- 1Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR) (Cologne, Germany)
- 2Institue of Atmospheric Physics (PA), German Aerospace Center (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
- 3Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M), Hamburg, Germany
- 4Leipzig Institute for Meteorology (LIM), Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
- 5National Observatory of Athens (NOA), Athens, Greece
- 6Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), Munich, Germany
- 7European Space Agency (ESA), Noordwijk, the Netherlands
- 8Earth Observation Research Center, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Tsukuba-city, Japan
Abstract
In May 2024, the Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) satellite was launched. For the first time a satellite combines two active instruments, i.e., the Atmospheric Lidar and the Cloud Profiling Radar, together with two passive instruments, a multi-spectral imager and a broad-band radiometer, on one single spacecraft platform. EarthCARE is thus the most complex satellite mission to date to for collocated aerosol, cloud, radiation and precipitation measurements. To utilize the data collected by the EarthCARE mission to its full extent and to support and quantify the data quality and measurement uncertainty, careful and holistic validation activities are needed. For this purpose, we set up an airborne instrument payload on the German High Altitude and LOng-range research aircraft (HALO), which is similar to the EarthCARE instrumentation. We used this payload during an extensive measurement campaign in summer and fall 2024 in the tropic, sup-tropic and mid- to high-latitudes targeting to validate the EarthCARE measurements and data products early in its commissioning phase. With 33 passes under the EarthCARE satellite during 30 research flights we were able to address target scenes that have been identified by the EarthCARE algorithm developers to be of importance for the validation of the mission, and to assure the retrieval performance under different meteorological conditions and aerosol-cloud situations.
Related
- Airborne Validation of Cloud Spatial Properties from the ATLID Instrument on EarthCARE
- Validation of EarthCARE CPR reflectivity using the ACTRIS cloud radar network
- Validation of EarthCARE/ATLID aerosol profiling products with ground-based PollyNET lidars – case studies
- Satellite–Ground Intercomparison between EarthCARE/ATLID and the China Aerosol Raman Lidar Network (CARLNET): Part I. Case Studies
- A preliminary analysis of tropical anvil-cloud dynamics in EarthCARE
BibTeX
@article{groß2026persistent,
title = {{Persistent EarthCARE underflight studies of the ITCZ and organized convection (PERCUSION): contribution to EarthCARE validation}},
author = {Silke Groß and Florian Ewald and Björn Stevens and Martin Wirth and Georgios Dekoutsidis and André Ehrlich and Dimitra Kouklaki and Konstantin Krüger and Sophie Rosenburg and Lea Volkmer and Jonas von Bismarck and Lutz Hirsch and Anna Luebke and Eleni D. Marinou and Bernhard Mayer and Montserrat Piñol Solé and Manfred Wendisch and Julia Windmiller and Vassilis Amiridis and Rob Koopman and Takuji Kubota and Markus Rapp},
journal = {Atmospheric measurement techniques},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
doi = {10.5194/amt-19-3933-2026},
url = {https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-3933-2026},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Persistent EarthCARE underflight studies of the ITCZ and organized convection (PERCUSION): contribution to EarthCARE validation
AU - Silke Groß
AU - Florian Ewald
AU - Björn Stevens
AU - Martin Wirth
AU - Georgios Dekoutsidis
AU - André Ehrlich
AU - Dimitra Kouklaki
AU - Konstantin Krüger
AU - Sophie Rosenburg
AU - Lea Volkmer
AU - Jonas von Bismarck
AU - Lutz Hirsch
AU - Anna Luebke
AU - Eleni D. Marinou
AU - Bernhard Mayer
AU - Montserrat Piñol Solé
AU - Manfred Wendisch
AU - Julia Windmiller
AU - Vassilis Amiridis
AU - Rob Koopman
AU - Takuji Kubota
AU - Markus Rapp
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/06/16
JO - Atmospheric measurement techniques
DO - 10.5194/amt-19-3933-2026
UR - https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-3933-2026
AB - In May 2024, the Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) satellite was launched. For the first time a satellite combines two active instruments, i.e., the Atmospheric Lidar and the Cloud Profiling Radar, together with two passive instruments, a multi-spectral imager and a broad-band radiometer, on one single spacecraft platform. EarthCARE is thus the most complex satellite mission to date to for collocated aerosol, cloud, radiation and precipitation measurements. To utilize the data collected by the EarthCARE mission to its full extent and to support and quantify the data quality and measurement uncertainty, careful and holistic validation activities are needed. For this purpose, we set up an airborne instrument payload on the German High Altitude and LOng-range research aircraft (HALO), which is similar to the EarthCARE instrumentation. We used this payload during an extensive measurement campaign in summer and fall 2024 in the tropic, sup-tropic and mid- to high-latitudes targeting to validate the EarthCARE measurements and data products early in its commissioning phase. With 33 passes under the EarthCARE satellite during 30 research flights we were able to address target scenes that have been identified by the EarthCARE algorithm developers to be of importance for the validation of the mission, and to assure the retrieval performance under different meteorological conditions and aerosol-cloud situations.
SN - 1867-1381
SN - 1867-8548
ER -