The Terra-aqua eXperiment 2002 (TX-2002) is being conducted from the former Kelly AFB in San Antonio, Texas from November 20 to December 13, 2002 to assess MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) L1B and science products from the Terra and Aqua satellites. MODIS and AIRS science products including earth-atmosphere radiance, atmospheric profiles (temperature and moisture), cloud top heights, cloud coverage or mask, and cloud particle phase are being collected globally and studied for signatures of Global Climate change under NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise initiative. During the experiment, data will be collected from a NASA high altitude ER-2 aircraft flying at 65000’ with remote sensing instruments looking down at the earth’s atmosphere and surface. The ER-2 will be flown underneath the Terra and Aqua satellites (Figure 1) on each mission, collecting measurements that can be compared directly to the MODIS and AIRS science products. The comparisons will be used to demonstrate the accuracy of the satellite products for usage in monitoring long term Global Climate change as well as suggest ways of fine tuning the MODIS and AIRS science product algorithms

TX-2002 is the fourth in an ongoing series of ER-2 field experiments designed in part to assess MODIS and AIRS L1B TIR band calibration and science products. The WISC-T2000 (Madison, WI, March 2000), SAFARI-2000 (Pietersburg, SA, Aug/Sep. 2000), TX-2001 (San Antonio, TX, March 2001) experiment data sets have contributed to the MODIS TIR band calibration assessment. TX-2002 will make a new contribution by assessing the cloud products on Terra MODIS and by assessing the 2nd MODIS and new AIRS instrument calibration on Aqua.

Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS), University of Wisconsin-Madison