AUTHOR=Stamnes Snorre , Baize Rosemary , Bontempi Paula , Cairns Brian , Chemyakin Eduard , Choi Young-Jun , Chowdhary Jacek , Hu Yongxiang , Jeong Minsup , Kang Kyung-In , Kim Sungsoo S. , Liu Xu , Loughman Robert , MacDonnell Dave , McCormick M. Patrick , Moon Bongkon , Omar Ali , Roithmayr Carlos M. , Sim Chae Kyung , Sun Wenbo , van Diedenhoven Bastiaan , Videen Gorden , Wasilewski Andrzej 

TITLE=Simultaneous Aerosol and Ocean Properties From the PolCube CubeSat Polarimeter

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Remote Sensing

VOLUME=2

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/remote-sensing/articles/10.3389/frsen.2021.709040

DOI=10.3389/frsen.2021.709040

ISSN=2673-6187

ABSTRACT=<p>We quantify the performance of aerosol and ocean remote sensing products from the PolCube instrument using a previously developed polarimeter retrieval algorithm based on optimal estimation. PolCube is a modified version of the PolCam lunar instrument on the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter that has been optimized for Earth-Science observations of aerosol, ocean, and thin cloud optical properties. The objective of the PolCube instrument is to retrieve detailed fine-mode (pollution and smoke) and coarse-mode (sea-salt and dust) aerosol properties over the ocean for a range of light to heavy aerosol loadings using its polarimetric-imaging capability at multiple angles and wavelengths from <inline-formula id="inf1"><mml:math id="m1" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mn>410</mml:mn><mml:mo>−</mml:mo><mml:mn>865</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:math></inline-formula> nm. An additional objective is to discriminate aerosols from thin clouds. PolCube’s retrieval performance of aerosol optical and microphysical properties and ocean products is quantitatively assessed. We estimate that PolCube can retrieve total aerosol optical depth at 555 nm (AOD<sub>555</sub>) within ±0.068, fine-mode AOD<sub>555</sub> within ±0.078, and fine-mode single-scattering albedo within ±0.036, where all uncertainties are expressed as one standard deviation (<inline-formula id="inf2"><mml:math id="m2" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mn>1</mml:mn><mml:mi>σ</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math></inline-formula>). PolCube’s accurate and high-resolution aerosol-retrieval products will provide unique spatial and temporal coverage of the Earth that can be used synergistically with other instruments, such as the Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer to improve air-quality forecasting.</p>