 |
Biographical Information
Dr. Michael D. King is Senior Project Scientist of NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS), a position he has held since 1992.
He also serves as Principal Investigator and Team Leader of the Atmosphere Discipline Group of the MODIS science team.
He received the B.A. degree in physics from Colorado College in 1971 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in atmospheric sciences
from the University of Arizona in 1973 and 1977, respectively, and joined Goddard Space Flight Center in January 1978.
Prior to his involvement with the EOS Project, Dr. King was Project Scientist of the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) from 1983-92.
Dr. King is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), and recipient of the
Verner E. Suomi Award of the AMS for fundamental contributions to remote sensing and radiative transfer. He received an Honorary Doctor of Science
from Colorado College in 1995, and is a Goddard Senior Fellow and recipient of the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, NASA Exceptional Scientific
Achievement Medal, and NASA Exceptional Service Medal. He has also received the William Nordberg Memorial Award for Earth Science,
Goddard’s highest scientific achievement award.
Dr. King’s research experience includes conceiving, developing, and operating multispectral scanning radiometers from a number of aircraft platforms
in field experiments ranging from arctic stratus clouds, to smoke from the Kuwait oil fires and biomass burning in Brazil and southern Africa.
Earlier, he developed the Cloud Absorption Radiometer for studying the absorption properties of optically thick clouds as well as the bidirectional
reflectance properties of many natural surfaces, and is principal investigator of the MODIS Airborne Simulator, which flies on the NASA ER-2 aircraft.
This instrument is aiding in the development and validation of atmospheric and land remote sensing algorithms for the MODIS and CERES instruments.
Dr. King is responsible for 5 science algorithms
being run routinely to process MODIS data: (i) cloud optical properties component of the MODIS cloud product, a level-2 algorithm for determining
cloud optical thickness and effective particle radius of both water and ice clouds, (ii) joint atmosphere level-2 product containing the most
important atmospheric properties but at a file size small enough to be of value to the worldwide scientific community, and level-3 combined
atmosphere products at 1° x 1° latitude/longitude resolution, averaged over (iii) a day, (iv) eight days (half of the orbital repeat cycle of MODIS),
and (v) a month.
MODIS Research Area
“Determination of Cloud Radiative and Microphysical Properties from MODIS”
The objectives of this investigation are to determine the cloud optical thickness, thermodynamic phase (liquid water vs. ice)
and effective particle radius of cloud droplets (or ice particles) using selected visible and near-infrared bands of the
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), carried on the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra and Aqua satellites.
Specifically, we utilize bands 1 (0.645 µm), 2 (0.858 µm), 5 (1.240 µm), 6 (1.640 µm), 7 (2.130 µm), and 20 (3.750 µm) of
MODIS to derive the optical thickness and effective particle radius of clouds.
We are also responsible for providing the MODIS Gridded Atmosphere Product at daily, 8 day, and monthly intervals.
This dataset is a composite of all Level 2 MODIS Atmosphere products, including subsets of the measurements made by the Aerosols,
Precipitable Water, Cloud Properties, and Atmospheric Profiles algorithms. These pixel-level observations are sorted into grid boxes,
and a variety of statistical summaries are computed within each grid box. Statistics may be computed for subsets of the original
observations, so that we can distinguish between water and ice clouds. Two sets of observations may be compared through
regressions or joint histograms, allowing us to examine the spatial variability in relationships between quantities such
as water cloud optical thickness and cloud top temperature.
A major and significant component of this investigation includes aircraft field experiments aimed at validating and improving the
algorithms for identifying cloud optical and microphysical properties. This consists of periodic aircraft flights utilizing
multispectral cloud radiometers operated from the University of Washington CV-580 (1998-2001) and NASA ER-2 aircraft.
In summary, the Team Member leads one level-2 data product (MODIS Cloud Product), one joint atmosphere level-2 product,
and three level-3 products (MODIS Gridded Atmospheric Product at daily, 8 day, and monthly time scales), as well as a
number of scientific investigations using MODIS data. These parameters are integrally interrelated and are direct
outgrowths of research activities of the team member.
MODIS Atmosphere Data Products
Granule (Orbital Swath) Products
Global (Gridded) Products
ATBDs
Field Work and Data Availability
The MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS) has participated in a wide variety of field experiments including the FIRE II cirrus experiment (Kansas - November 1991),
the Atlantic Stratocumulus Transition Experiment (ASTEX; Azores, Portugal - June 1992),
the Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA-COARE; Townsville, Australia - January-February 1993),
Central Equatorial Pacific Experiment (CEPEX; Fiji, March 1993), the Sulfate, Clouds and Radiation-Atlantic (SCAR-A) experiment off the coast of Virginia (July 1993),
the Monterey Area Ship Track experiment (MAST; California - June 1994), the Arctic Radiation Measurements in Column Atmosphere-surface System
(ARMCAS; Beaufort Sea, Alaska - June 1995), SCAR-B (Brazil; August-September 1995), FIRE Arctic Cloud Experiment
(FIRE ACE; Beaufort and Chukchi Sea, Alaska, May-June 1998), the Southern Africa Regional Science Initiative 2000
(SAFARI 2000; southern Africa, August-September 2000), the Chesapeake Lighthouse and Aircraft Measurements for Satellites
(CLAMS; July-August 2001), and the Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers-Florida Area Cloud Experiment (CRYSTAL-FACE; July 2002).
In addition to this high altitude multispectral scanner, which has been used to develop and test algorithms for cloud and surface properties for MODIS,
another airborne sensor, the Cloud Absorption Radiometer (CAR), developed at Goddard Space Flight Center in the early 1980s,
has participated in a wide variety of experiments, including FIRE I marine stratocumulus experiment (coast of southern California, July 1987),
ASTEX, SCAR-A, MAST, ARMCAS, SCAR-B, FIRE ACE, SAFARI 2000, CLAMS, the Kuwait oil fire smoke experiment (Persian Gulf, May 1991),
and the Lead Experiment (LEADEX) over leads and sea ice in the Beaufort Sea, Alaska in May 1992.
These data are being used to derive surface bidirectional reflectance characteristics at selected wavelengths between 0.47 and 2.3 µm,
as well as cloud absorption and reflection characteristics.
Publications
Related World Wide Web Sites
Contact Infomation
Dr. Michael King
T: 301-614-5636
F: 301-614-5620
E: michael.d.king@nasa.gov
|
