[A-CG36] Satellite Earth Environment Observation

[ACG36-P04] Multifaceted validation of NASA’s PACE Mission data products

*Lachlan McKinna^1,2, Brian Cairns³, Ivona Cetinić^1,4, Susanne Craig^1,5, Bryan Fran¹, Meng Gao^1,6, Amir Ibrahim¹, Kirk Knobelspiesse¹, Antonio Mannino¹, Christopher Proctor^1,6, Chamara Rajapakshe^1,6, Violeta Sanjuan Calzado^1,5, Andrew Sayer^1,5, Inia Soto Ramos^1,4, Jeremy Werdell¹ (1.NASA GSFC, Code 616, Greenbelt, MD, USA, 2.GO2Q, Sunshine Coast, QLD, Australia, 3.NASA GISS, New York, NY, USA, 4.GESTAR II, MSU, Baltimore, MD, USA, 5.GESTAR II, UMBC, Baltimore, MD, USA, 6.SSAI, Lanham, MD, USA)

Keywords:validation, products, polarimetry, atmosphere, ocean, land

The recently launched NASA Plankton, Aerosol, Clouds and ocean Ecosystems (PACE) Mission will produce ocean color, aerosol, cloud and land surface data products from its three sensors. Some of these products will be created with established ‘heritage’ algorithms, which have continuity with prior and current missions. Others are new, representing recent algorithm development and the unique measurement capability of the PACE sensors. Validation of all these products is crucial. PACE has required products that must be validated within a defined period following launch, and advanced data products under development require validation to become approved for standard data processing status1. For these reasons, the PACE validation plan has many components2. This includes activities by the PACE Project Science office, contributing PACE instrument teams, a competitively funded PACE Validation Science Team (PVST), and a dedicated field campaign called the PACE Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE-PAX)3. We will provide an overview of these PACE Validation activities and describe how the Science and Applications communities can be further involved.

1 Werdell, P.J., B. Franz, P. Bontempi, K. Murphy, A. Mannino, B. Cairns, S. Bailey, W. Turner, and A. Mannino, 2020. PACE Technical Report Series, Volume 8: PACE Science Data Product Selection Plan. NASA, https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20205007069

2 A. Mannino et al, 2020. PACE Science Data Product Validation Plan, PACE Draft Technical Report, NASA, https://pace.oceansciences.org/docs/PACE_Validation_Plan_14July2020.pdf

3 Knobelspiesse, K.D., I. Cetinić, S. Craig, B.A. Franz, M. Gao, A. Ibrahim, A. Mannino, A.M. Sayer, P.J. Werdell, 2023, PACE Technical Report Series, Volume 11: The PACE Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE-PAX). NASA, https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20230008223