Title: CoSMIR-H: An Airborne Hyperspectral Microwave Sounder for Thermodynamic Sensing of the Planetary Boundary Layer
Presenting Author: Rachael Kroodsma
Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Co-Author(s): Ian Adams, Troy Ames, Matthew Fritts, Antonia Gambacorta, Priscilla Mohammed, Jeffrey Piepmeier

Abstract:
Obtaining observations of Earth’s atmosphere from space at high spatial and temporal resolution is critical for the continual improvement of weather and climate models. Hyperspectral microwave (HMW) sounding is a recent technology that can be used to improve the vertical resolution of atmospheric profiles to supplement and enhance profiles currently obtained from microwave sounders and infrared hyperspectral sounders. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is developing an airborne HMW sensor by modifying the existing Conical Scanning Millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer (CoSMIR) receivers with digital spectrometers. The new CoSMIR-Hyperspectral (CoSMIR-H) will retain the dual-polarized (vertical and horizontal) window channels at 89 and 165 GHz and will replace the two 50-GHz channels and three 183-GHz channels with hyperspectral channels spanning a range of 8 GHz between 50.0 and 58.0 GHz near the 60-GHz oxygen absorption band and a range of 16 GHz between 175.31 and 191.31 GHz centered on the 183.31 GHz water vapor absorption line. The Pacific Microchip Corporation Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) spectrometers will give CoSMIR-H 4-MHz spectral resolution in these frequency ranges. The fine spectral resolution can be averaged to match the bandwidth of current spaceborne sounders for inter-comparison of measurements and to validate improvement in vertical resolution of retrievals. CoSMIR-H is currently in development and is scheduled for engineering check flights on the high-altitude NASA ER-2 aircraft out of Edwards, CA, in July 2024. Prior to the engineering check flights, we plan to perform environmental testing on CoSMIR-H in a high-altitude chamber (thermal vacuum) to verify instrument functionality and performance in the aircraft environment to ensure CoSMIR-H is ready for flight. This presentation will give an update on the design and development of CoSMIR-H and show preliminary laboratory measurements.