Overview
The objective of creating CREST Data and products is mainly to cater to the needs of the scientific community in particular the student researchers who could use these data to advance their research work and findings.
CREST Data and Products are direct outcome of the research conducted by the CREST scientists in collaboration with NOAA Scientists.
The Satellite Receiving Station (SRS) located on the roof top of the NAC building at the City College of New York. The installation consists of two separate antennas and acquisition systems. Data types that can be received and processed are from X-band transmitting polar orbiting satellites, Suomi NPP, Terra and Aqua, and L-band data from the geostationary (GOES-13) satellite. Using a 2.4m robot-controlled positioning antenna enclosed in a weatherproof dome, X-band data is acquired, processed and archived in the NAC building. Concurrently, GOES data is also acquired, processed and archived using a nearby stationary 3.7m antenna.
Lidar is an acronym for LIght Detection And Ranging, a technique similar in principle to Sonar and Radar to determine ranging, or the measurement of distance by time domain reflections. Lidar uses a (often pulsed) beam source while measuring the time and intensity of reflected energy. When there is no 'solid' target, there is still a small portion of the beam that is reflected by atmospheric constituents along the line of sight (backscatter.) This measurement technique can infer several characteristics of the target or also of the intervening atmosphere.
Observations are updated every 15 minutes to better characterize meteorological conditions within the NYC urban environment. Surface observations consist, in part, of near real-time atmospheric pressure, relative humidity, temperature, wind direction, wind speed, rain rate, and total rain accumulation measurements at building-top sites. Upper air measurements from SODAR and radar wind profilers consist of wind speed and direction at various altitudes in near real-time.
The ORS Lab along with the Naval Research Laboratory at Stennis Space Center, Mississippi, has established a new, scientifically comprehensive, off-shore platform, the Long Island Sound Coastal Observatory (LISCO). This site has been designed to serve as a venue and framework for combining multi- and hyperspectral radiometer measurements with satellite and in situ measurements and radiative transfer simulations of coastal waters, helping to provide more effective closure for the whole measurement validation/simulation loop. Measurements are presented and utilized for multi-spectral calibration/validation of current Ocean Color satellites (MERIS, MODIS, SeaWIFS) in coastal waters, and for evaluating future satellites missions (NPOESS, OCM2, Sentinel-2) with extension to hyperspectral calibration/validations of the hyperspectral sensors (HICO), as well as for improvements in coastal IOP retrieval and atmospheric correction algorithms.
The Remote Sensing of Climate Group (RSCG) is a part of the NOAA-Cooperative Remote Sensing Science and Technology Center at the City College of New York.
Research areas include:
- Cloud physics, precipitation and dynamics
- Atmospheric convection and wave dynamics
- Atmospheric radiative transfer and Earth radiation budget
- Land hydrology
- Global Energy and Water Cycle
- Satellite remote sensing of Earth's climate
The River Ice Project is looks at regional ice conditions in various rivers and lakes around Alaska, Missouri Basin and North East of the US.
The CREST-Snow Analysis and Field Experiment (CREST-SAFE) is being carried out every winter seasons from 2010. The field experiment site is located at 46°52'00.9N and 68°00'47.9W on the premises of Caribou Municipal Airport and National Weather Service office at Caribou, ME. Caribou with a humid continental climate, offers the ideal conditions for snow studies, the normal seasonal snowfall for Caribou is approximately 116 inches (2.9 m). The record snowfall for Caribou is 197.8 inches (5.02 m) set in the winter of 2007-2008.
The CREST-SMART is a soil moisture observation network approved by NASA as a core validation site for the SMAP mission is deployed in the region of Millbrook, NY. It includes an L band (1.45 GHz) dual polarization radiometer that is part of the CREST Microwave Observation Unit. The study site serves as a calibration/validation site for the NASA SMAP mission.
