GRASP-SAS (FR)
The Geostationary and Lidar space-borne Aerosol 4-Dimensional Synergy (GLADIS) project aims to develop and validate novel retrieval methods that expand the portfolio of products available from the EarthCARE mission. The primary goal is to generate a highly detailed, 4-dimensional (spatial, temporal, and vertical) aerosol product. This new dataset will help reduce key uncertainties in climate science by providing a more comprehensive understanding of aerosol properties and its vertical distribution. The project will specifically focus on challenging scientific goals, such as quantifying desert dust emissions, which are difficult to observe using conventional methods over bright desert surfaces.
The project’s core innovation is a profound synergy processing method based on the GRASP algorithm. The advanced multi-pixel approach allows the algorithm to combine active lidar observations from EarthCARE (ATLID) with passive sensor data from multiple other missions, even when the observations are not perfectly co-located or simultaneous.
GLADIS will be one of the first projects to synergetically combine L1 data from a diverse set of remote sensing instruments, spanning a range of satellite platforms:
By combining the vertical profiling capabilities of lidar with the rich spectral and angular information from passive imagers, the project aims to create a single, enhanced aerosol product that describes particle properties (like size, absorption, and type) resolved vertically and on a continuous spatio-temporal scale synchronised with EarthCARE overpasses.
