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
(720) 974-1855

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

Expected Technology Readiness Level (TRL) upon completion of contract: 6 to 7

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 extend filtering and data assimilation techniques for satellite derived aerosol optical depth based on the wavelet transform.
The assimilation system is based on the Model for Atmospheric Transport and Chemistry (MATCH) and include improvements such as the incorporation of satellite observed aerosol size modes and column water vapor.
Initially we will focus specifically on aerosol measurements from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments flying on the Terra and Aqua satellites.
The assimilated fields will be tested against surface network observations of aerosol optical depth.
We will employ the assimilation 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)
Phase II will produce an enhanced daily global aerosol dataset that will be provided to the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy Sys tem
(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 syst em.
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.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING

Software Development Environments