JPSSVAL

ARM Radiosondes for JPSS Validation

1 February 2024 - 31 December 2027

Lead Scientist: Lori Borg

Observatory: SGP

This field campaign is an extension of the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP)/Joint Polar Satellite Program (JPSS) Radiosonde Field Campaign, which has been a coordinated multi-year effort involving ARM, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) to validate SNPP and JPSS NOAA-20 and NOAA-21 satellite sounding products. In this arrangement, funding for radiosondes has been provided by the JPSS project to ARM. These radiosondes have been launched coincident with JPSS satellite overpasses at the ARM field sites at ENA (since 2015), NSA and SGP (since 2012), and TWP (2012-2014) and have provided critical accuracy assessments of the temperature and water vapor satellite retrievals. This work has been a fundamental, integral, and cost-effective part of the S-NPP (2012-2018), NOAA-20 (2018-2023), and NOAA-21 (since June 2023) satellite validation efforts. This campaign will continue these coordinated radiosonde launches at the ENA, NSA, and SGP sites and begin launches at the BNF (AMF3) site when it begins operating in 2024. We anticipate that these efforts will continue throughout the lifetime of NOAA-21 and after the launch of the JPSS-4 and JPSS-3 satellites for ongoing validation and monitoring of the satellite retrievals.