Development of a Multispectral Infrared All Sky Imager for Cloud Property Retrieval

This study proposes the development of an infrared all sky imager to provide accurate cloud property information with high spatial and temporal resolution. Infrared detection provides both day and night capabilities. An innovative aspect of the concept is exploitation of the information content of multispectral channels to facilitate the determination of microphysical and optical properties. The Phase 1 effort employs: (a) radiative transfer based simulation modeling to support optimal channel selection and bandpass determination, (b) multispectral cloud property retrieval algorithms to assess the accuracy of inferred cloud parameters, and (c) a detailed sensor feasibility and tradeoff study based on the results of (a) and (b) to determine design parameters. The results from the sensor feasibility study will include: (a) recommendations for the scanning, detector, colling, and filter technology to employ, (b) a discussion on the computer processing and storage requirements to provide an autonomous near real-time processing capability, and estimates of the cost to design and build the prototype system.