Suomi satellite brings to light a unique frontier of nighttime environmental sensing capabilities

Steven D. Miller, Stephen P. Mills, Christopher D. Elvidge, Daniel T. Lindsey, Thomas F. Lee, and Jeffrey D. Hawkins
PNAS published ahead of print September 10, 2012 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1207034109

  1. Edited by Michael Mishchenko, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Institute, New York, NY, and accepted by the Editorial Board August 10, 2012 (received for review April 25, 2012)

Abstract

Most environmental satellite radiometers use solar reflectance information when it is available during the day but must resort at night to emission signals from infrared bands, which offer poor sensitivity to low-level clouds and surface features. A few sensors can take advantage of moonlight, but the inconsistent availability of the lunar source limits measurement utility. Here we show that the Day/Night Band (DNB) low-light visible sensor on the recently launched Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite has the unique ability to image cloud and surface features by way of reflected airglow, starlight, and zodiacal light illumination. Examples collected during new moon reveal not only meteorological and surface features, but also the direct emission of airglow structures in the mesosphere, including expansive regions of diffuse glow and wave patterns forced by tropospheric convection. The ability to leverage diffuse illumination sources for nocturnal environmental sensing applications extends the advantages of visible-light information to moonless nights.

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: steven.miller{at}colostate.edu.

  • Author contributions: S.D.M. designed research; S.D.M. performed research; S.D.M., S.P.M., and C.D.E. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; S.D.M., S.P.M., C.D.E., D.T.L., T.F.L., and J.D.H. analyzed data; and S.D.M., S.P.M., and T.F.L. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. M.M. is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1207034109/-/DCSupplemental.

Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.

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Satellite detects clouds by airglow and starlight
Steven D. Miller, Stephen P. Mills, Christopher D. Elvidge, Daniel T. Lindsey, Thomas F. Lee, Jeffrey D. Hawkins
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Sep 2012, 201207034; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1207034109
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