On the Determination of the Optimal Scan Mode Sequence for the TRMM CERES Instrument

Abstract

Clouds and the Earth?s Radiant Energy System (CERES) is a NASA spaceborne measurement program for monitoring the radiation environment of the earth?atmosphere system. The first CERES instrument is scheduled to be launched on board the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite in late 1997. In addition to gathering traditional cross-track fixed azimuth measurements for calculating monthly mean radiation fields, this single CERES scanner instrument will also be required to collect angular radiance data using a rotating azimuth configuration for developing new angular dependence models (ADMs). Since the TRMM single CERES instrument can only be run in either one of these two configurations at any one time, it will need to be operated in a cyclical pattern between these two scan modes to achieve the intended measurement goals. To minimize the errors in the derived monthly mean radiation field due to missing cross-track scanner measurements during this satellite mission, determination of the optimal scan mode sequence for the TRMM single CERES instrument is carried out. The Earth Radiation Budget Experiment S-4 daily mean cross-track scanner data product for April and July 1985 and January 1986 is used with a simple temporal sampling scheme to produce simulated daily mean cross-track scanner measurements under different TRMM CERES operational scan mode sequences. Error analysis is performed on the monthly mean radiation fields derived from these simulated datasets. It is found that the best monthly mean result occurred when the cross-track scanner is operated on a ?2 days on and 1 day off? mode. This scan mode sequence will effectively allow for 2 consecutive days of cross-track scanner data and 1 day of angular radiance measurement for each 3-day period. The root-mean-square errors for the monthly mean all-sky (clear sky) longwave and shortwave radiation field, due to missing cross-track scanner measurements for this particular case, are expected to be less than 2.5 (0.5) and 5.0 (1.5) W m?2, respectively.