NASA ATM Flights to the Antarctic Peninsula/PatagoniaWilliam B. Krabill, Code 614.1, NASA GSFC

The GSFC/WFF Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) team has returned from Chile after a very successful airborne ice sheet mapping campaign. The project utilized a Chilean Navy P3 aircraft to fly airborne lidar and depth sounding radar flights over sites in the Antarctic Peninsula and the Patagonia Ice Fields.

Figure 1: Antarctic Peninsula/Patagonia Research Team

Polar ice sheets store most of the Earth’s freshwater - equivalent to about 70 meters of global sea level - and they have a strong influence on both atmospheric and ocean circulation. Both the Antarctica Peninsula and Patagonian glacier regions are especially sensitive to climate change, because they exist on the “margins of viability” for large ice masses. Consequently, understanding the changes in Antarctica related to ice-shelf breakup, as well as the temperate glaciers in Patagonia is of considerable importance for assessing future sea level rise. Figure 2: Antarctic flightlines and one to Patagonia from this year’s

campaign in red, and all potential sites in green.

Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory

References:Thomas R., E. Rignot, G. Casassa, P. Kanagaratnam, C. Acuna, T. Akins, H. Brecher, E. Frederick, P. Gogineni, W. Krabill, S. Manizade, H. Ramamoorthy, A. Rivera, R. Russell, J. Sonntag, R. Swift, J. Yungel, & J. Zwally, 2004. Accelerated sea-level rise from West Antarctica, Science, 306 (255-258).

Rignot, E., R. Thomas, G. Casassa, E. Frederick, S. Gogineni, P. Kanagaratnam, W. Krabill, A. Rivera, R. Russell, J. Sonntag, R. Swift, J. Yungel, 2004. Improved estimation of the mass balance of the glaciers draining into the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica using data from the 2002 NASA/CECS airborne campaign, Annals of Glaciology 39 231-237. Proceedings of IGS Seventh International Symposium on Antarctic Glaciology, Milan, Italy, 25-29 June 2003.

Name: William B. Krabill, NASA/GSFC/WFF E-mail: william.b.krabill@nasa.govPhone: 757-824-1417

Technical Description of the Figure: Shows the 5 Antarctic flightlines and one to Patagonia from this year’s campaign in red, and all potential sites in green.

Scientific Significance: Antarctica stores 91% of the Earth’s land-ice by volume. Recent observations show that glaciers in the Antarctic Peninsula accelerated rapidly following breakup of ice shelves into which they had previously flowed, and that Patagonian glaciers are losing mass more rapidly, as a percentage of their total mass, than any other major group of glaciers yet surveyed. The Antarctic Peninsula is emerging to be one of the most climatically sensitive regions on the continent.

The project utilized a Chilean Navy P3 aircraft to fly airborne lidar and depth sounding radar flights over sites in the Antarctic Peninsula and the Patagonia Ice Fields. Coordination for the aircraft, as well as scientific collaboration, was provided by the Centro de Estudios Científicos in Valdivia, Chile (CECS). The primary sensors were the GSFC/WFF ATM, along with supporting GPS and INS instrumentation (PI/Bill Krabill). Also on board was an Instrument Incubator Project from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab known as PARIS (Pathfinder Advanced Radar Ice Sounder). Many of the flight lines have been surveyed by this project in 2002 and 2004, so that change detection measurements will be immediately available following data processing. Typical lidar performance in the past has been at the 10-centimeter level.

Relevance to future science and relationship to Decadal Survey: The project is a good example of an ICESat Data Continunity Program.

Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory

The EPA developed BASINS to serve as a decision support tool for assessing point/nonpoint source pollution for improving water quality. Precipitation data from weather stations serve as standard input into the model for streamflow.

NASA North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) precipitation data from blended products of interpolated surface gauge, Doppler radar data, and satellite data provided significantly better stream flow statistics and water quality assessment with plans to now make available routinely in BASINS.

NASA-modified Precipitation Products to ImproveEPA Nonpoint Source Water Quality Modeling

D.Toll, T. Engman & J. Nigro (614.3), E. Partington (EPA), W. Ni-Meister & S. Lee (Hunter College), and A. Magness (USGS-CBP)

NE Anacostia W Patuxent

Pocomoke

Deer Creek

Calfpasture

Little River

Mahantango

Figure 3: Comparison of flow results using default weather station, NLDAS, and STAGE- IV precipitation datasets for Calfpasture Basin

Figure 1: Graph (left) showing poor correlation between rain gauges . Map (right) showing difference in spatial coverage between weather stations and spatial precipitation data

Figure 2: Study basins in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory

Name: David Toll, NASA/GSFC E-mail: David.L.Toll@nasa.govPhone: 301-614-5801

References:Cosgrove, B.A., D. Lohmann, K.E. Mitchell, P.R. Houser, E.F. Wood, J.C. Schaake, A. Robock, C. Marshall, J. Sheffield, Q. Duan, L. Luo, R.W. Higgins, R.T. Pinker, J.D. Tarpley, and J. Meng. 2003. Real-time and retrospective forcing in the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) project. Journal of Geophysical Research 108 (D22): Art. No. 8842.

NASA, 2008. “Benchmark Report for the EPA BASINS Decision Support Tool”, Water Management Applications Program, NASA-HQ, Washington DC.

Toll, D., E. Engman, E. Partington, A. Magness, P. Townsend, W. Ni-Meister, J. Nigro and S. Lee, 2007. Using NASA and Earth Science Products to Improve EPA Non-point Source Water Quality Modeling for the Chesapeake Bay, American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, Poster Presentation (December).USEPA.

2001. Better Assessment Science Integrating point and Nonpoint Sources BASINS Version 3.0 User’s Manual, EPA-823-B-01-001, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water, Washington, DC.

Data Sources: This is a joint effort composed of multiple agencies including the EPA, NASA-GSFC, Hunter College, and Chesapeake Bay Program. The NLDAS 1/8th degree precipitation product is hourly observation based precipitation data derived from daily National Center for Environmental Prediction Climate Prediction Center (NCEP-CPC) gauged-based precipitation analyses and hourly National Weather Service Doppler radar-based (WSR-88D) precipitation analyses, where in the hourly radar-based analyses are used to temporally disaggregate the daily CPC values, and CMORPH (NOAA CPC Morphing Technique using satellite microwave and infrared satellite data. The Stage IV product consists of precipitation values derived by the NOAA River Forecast Center Multisensor Precipitation Estimator (MPE). This product is generated at NCEP directly from radar and gauged data. HSPF calibration values were established by the CBP, based on average county soils, topography and land use for each county in the basin.

Technical Description of Image:Figure 1: Graph (left) showing poor correlation between rain gauges not representative of precipitation in the entire Anacostia/Patuxent basins. Map (right) showing difference in spatial coverage between weather stations and remotely-sensed precipitation data.Figure 2: Study basins in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed selected based on area, presence of water quality data, absence of reservoirs, varying terrain and land cover, and spatial diversity. National Land Cover Dataset 1992 is displayed for each basin.Figure 3: Comparison of flow results using default weather station, NLDAS, and STAGE IV precipitation datasets for Calfpasture basin . There is significant improvement in model performance for convective storm periods (shown here), as well as low flow and annual periods, when substituting NASA-modified precipitation than when using default weather station data. Little difference was found between the NLDAS and Stage IV results.

Scientific significance: The EPA estimates that over 20,000 water bodies within the U.S. do not meet water quality standards. Ninety percent of the impairments are typically caused by nonpoint sources. Based on the results from this study, the EPA now has an alternative precipitation dataset other than the nearest meteorological station, which may be many kilometers away, that will result in improved model performance and water quality assessment

Relevance for future science and relationship to Decadal Survey: NLDAS 1/8th degree precipitation data improve the performance of HSPF and provide more accurate stream flow results that will improve water quality assessment. NASA-GSFC and Aqua Terra Consultants are working together to integrate NLDAS data into EPA’s BASINS to provide an alternative input for HSPF users in the conterminous US and parts of Canada and Mexico through the BASINS interface.

Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory

First Hurricane Observations from NOAA Operational Replacement for the NASA Scanning Radar Altimeter

Edward Walsh, Code 614.6, NASA GSFCThe Scanning Radar Altimeter (SRA) designed and built by the Goddard Space Flight Center flew aboard a NOAA aircraft for eight hurricane seasons to investigate ocean surface wave properties and rain rate. The observations proved so valuable that NASA helped NOAA build the Wide Swath Radar Altimeter (WSRA) to provide the measurements operationally. With NASA developed software, the WSRA will operate unattended, automatically analyzing its data and transmitting the results to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) during the flights.

IKE RMW

WSRA and Buoy 42001

Figure 1: Gray-scale coded WSRA wave topography showing west propagating swell from RMW and SSW propagating sea

Figure 2: Hurricane Ike track and radius of maximum wind (RMW) at 0948 UTC on 11 SEP 2008

Figure 3: Buoy 42001 wave height variation and WSRA observation.

Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory

Name: Edward Walsh, NASA/GSFC

E-mail: Edward.Walsh@nasa.gov

Phone: 303-497-6357

References on SRA hurricane measurements:

Black, P. G., E. A. d’Asaro, W. M. Drennan, J. R. French, P. P. Niiler, T. B. Sanford, E. J. Terrill, E. J. Walsh, J. A. Zhang, 2007: Air–sea exchange in hurricanes, synthesis of observations from the Coupled Boundary Layer Air–Sea Transfer Experiment, Bull. AMS, 88, 357-374.

Fan, Y., I. Ginis, T. Hara, C. W. Wright and E. J. Walsh, 2009: Numerical simulations and observations of surface wave fields under an extreme tropical cyclone, in preparation.

Moon, Il-Ju, Isaac Ginis, Tetsu Hara, H. L. Tolman, C. W. Wright and E. J. Walsh, 2003: Numerical simulation of sea surface directional wave spectra under hurricane wind forcing, J. Phys. Oceanogr., 33, 1680-1706.

Walsh, E. J., C. W. Wright, D. Vandemark, W. B. Krabill, A. Garcia, S. H. Houston, S. T. Murillo, M. D. Powell, P. G. Black, and F. D. Marks, 2002: Hurricane directional wave spectrum spatial variation at landfall, J. Phys. Oceanogr., 32, 1667-1684.

Wright, C. W., E. J. Walsh, D. Vandemark, W. B. Krabill, A. Garcia, S. H. Houston, M. D. Powell, P. G. Black, and F. D. Marks, 2001: Hurricane directional wave spectrum spatial variation in the open ocean, J. Phys. Oceanogr., 31, 2472-2488.

Wright, C. W., E. J. Walsh, W. B. Krabill, W. A. Shaffer, S. R. Baig, M. Peng, L. J. Pietrafesa, A. W. Garcia, F. D. Marks, Jr., P. G. Black, J. Sonntag, B. D. Beckley, 2009: Storm Surge Measurement with an Airborne Scanning Radar Altimeter, J. Atmos. Oceanic Tech., submitted.

Data Sources: Scanning Radar Altimeter (SRA) and Wide Swath Radar Altimeter (WSRA)

Technical Description of Images: In Figure 1, Gray-scale coded WSRA wave topography shows west propagating swell

from RMW and SSW propagating sea. Figure 2 shows the Hurricane Ike track and radius of maximum wind (RMW) at 0948 UTC on 11 SEP 2008 and Figure 3 shows Buoy 42001 wave height variation and WSRA observation.

Scientific Significance: The WSRA measurements will be important for issuing warnings, verifying and improving the performance of numerical models used to forecast hurricane waves and storm surge, and measuring rain rate throughout the inner core of hurricanes.

Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory