Information Regarding CAMEX3-LASE Images

Major CAMEX3-LASE References and Related LASE References.

CAMEX3-LASE IMAGES

General:

Gaps in the data may be due to laser eye safety as laser beams may be blocked in clouds, aircraft turns, or in the vicinity of other aircraft. Aerosol measurements are at a wavelength of 815 nm.
Logarithmic color scales are used for all images except entire flight summaries of water vapor (0-8km), which are displayed with a linear color scale.
During CAMEX-3, LASE operated on one, two or three pairs of laser wavelengths. All Zenith water vapor data has a horizontal resolution of 3 minutes of raw data for a pair of wavelengths, but this represents different aircraft flight time and distance.
The horizontal display interval for entire flight summaries varies with the length of the flight.

VERTICAL and HORRIZONTAL DATA RESOLUTIONS

VERTICAL RESOLUTION:


Vertical averaging interval
          Atmospheric Scattering Ratios           60 meters
Nadir Water Vapor Mixing Ratio         330 meters
Zenith Water Vapor Mixing Ratio        990 meters (< 1km range)
Zenith Water Vapor Mixing Ratio       2010 meters (> 1km range)

Vertical display interval for averaged data
          Atmospheric Scattering Ratio and
Water Vapor Mixing Ratio (0-18km)       60 meters

Atmospheric Scattering Ratio and
Water Vapor Mixing Ratio (0-8km)        30 meters

HORIZONTAL RESOLUTION:


Horizontal averaging interval
        Flights 15(21:29 -- 00:38 UT) (one water-line pair)
Atmospheric Scattering Ratio         3 sec, or approx 700 meters
Nadir Water Vapor Mixing Ratio     60 sec, or approx 14 km
Zenith Water Vapor Mixing Ratio     3 min, or approx 42 km

Flights 19, 20 (two water-line pairs)
             Atmospheric Scattering Ratio         6 sec, or approx 1400 meters
Nadir Water Vapor Mixing Ratio      2 min, or approx 28 km
Zenith Water Vapor Mixing Ratio     6 min, or approx 84 km

Flights 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15(00:48 -- 02:18 UT)
(three water-line pairs
             Atmospheric Scattering Ratio         9 sec, or approx 2100 meters
Nadir Water Vapor Mixing Ratio      3 min, or approx 42 km
Zenith Water Vapor Mixing Ratio     9 min, or approx 126 km

Horizontal display interval for averaged data
        Flights 15(21:29 -- 00:38 UT) (one water-line pair)
Atmospheric Scattering Ratio and
Water Vapor Mixing Ratio       	  3.0 sec, or approx 700 meters

Flights 19, 20 (two water-line pairs)
             Atmospheric Scattering Ratio and
Water Vapor Mixing Ratio       	  6.0 sec, or approx 1400 meters

Flights 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15(00:48 -- 02:18 UT)
(three water-line pairs
             Atmospheric Scattering Ratio and
Water Vapor Mixing Ratio       	  9.0 sec, or approx 2100 meters

Times on the images are Universal Time (UT).

The PS track, and GIF aerosol and water vapor and profile image dimensions are 1050 X 850 pixels in order to retain resolution. Your WWW browser/GIF viewer may handle the image in various ways. On displays of less than 1050 X 850 pixels the image may have to be scrolled or the image may get resized, losing some clarity of the fonts.

These airborne DIAL data images are to be used as a reference to the digital data to be archived at the NASA Langley DAAC. Please contact either Dr Ed Browell or Dr Syed Ismail at NASA Langley for access to CAMEX3-LASE digital data prior to archiving. Images are not to be published without permission from NASA Langley.