NASA SBIR 2008 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Tech-X Corporation
5621 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite A
Boulder, CO 80303 - 1379
(303) 448-0727

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
David W Fillmore
fillmore@txcorp.com
5621 Arapahoe Ave Ste A
Boulder, CO 80303 - 1379
(303) 996-2024

Expected Technology Readiness Level (TRL) upon completion of contract: 5

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
Satellite observations of the Earth often contain excessive noise
and extensive data voids.
Aerosol measurements, for instance,
are obscured and contaminated by clouds,
possible only on the sunlit side of the globe,
and difficult over bright land areas.
We propose to explore new filtering and data assimilation
techniques for satellite derived aerosol optical depth
based on the directional spherical wavelet transform.
Initially we will focus specifically on aerosol measurements
from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)
instruments flying on the Terra and Aqua satellites.
In Phase I we will prototype a spherical wavelet filter and
assess its ability to smooth aerosol fields and interpolate
into data voids.
The smoothed fields will be tested against
surface network observations of aerosol optical depth.
Further, we will build an interface
to the Data Assimilation Research Testbed (DART)
coupled to the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) 4.
Phase II will employ the wavelet filter and assimilation system
to produce aerosol datasets for application in Earth radiation
budget observations and atmospheric correction methods.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
In collaboration with the Atmospheric Chemistry Division of the
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR),
Phase II will produce an enhanced daily global aerosol dataset
that will be provided to the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System
(CERES) project as an input to the
the Surface and Atmosphere Radiation Budget (SARB) subsystem.
This dataset will be based on the assimilation of
the MODIS Collection 5 Level 2 Aerosol Product,
and span the time period starting with the launch of Terra,
year 2000 - present.

This work will be continued for the next generation instruments
that will replace MODIS and CERES;
respectively, the Visible-Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite
(VIIRS) and the Earth Radiation Budget Sensor (ERBS),
which will fly on the tri-agency National Polar Operational
Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) and
the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite,
currently designated for launch in 2010.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The smooth daily aerosol fields will benefit atmospheric correction
procedures for land surface and ocean spectral imaging.
In particular, in Phase II we will build
an improved atmospheric correction package for
the Environment for Visualizing Images (ENVI) geospatial software system.
The ENVI package will incorporate aerosol fields
based on filtered MODIS and VIIRS optical depth retrievals.

NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.

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