The atmospheric limb sounding satellite (ALISS)

Paper in proceeding, 2014

The Atmospheric Limb Sounding Satellite (ALISS) is a joint Canadian-Swedish concept that is currently under study by agencies, industrial partners and academic institutions in both countries. Launch is not anticipated before late 2020. ALISS has significant heritage, resembling the current Odin mission in terms of some of the countries involved and the types of instruments. However, ALISS will have a focus on the upper troposphere in addition to Odin's primarily stratospheric focus. The ALISS mission has objectives relating to climate-chemistry coupling, UV radiation, dynamics, atmospheric composition in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere, and in conjunction with nadir sensors, air quality, by virtue of the array of key atmospheric constituents that it will measure with an unprecedented combination of vertical and horizontal resolution for satellite-borne instruments. ALISS consists of four atmospheric limb remote sensing instruments. Three of these have space heritage and are: the Canadian-designed Atmospheric Tomography System (CATS) that is a derivative of the highly successful Optical Spectrograph and InfraRed Imaging System (OSIRIS) instrument, the Swedish-designed Stratosphere Troposphere Exchange And climate Monitoring Radiometer (STEAMR) that is a follow-on instrument to the sub-millimetre radiometer (SMR) that currently operates with OSIRIS on Odin, and a Global Positioning System Radio Occultation instrument. The fourth instrument, also Canadian, is the Spatial Heterodyne Observations of Water (SHOW). SHOW will measure profiles of water vapour using its near-infrared absorption. Among other things, the ALISS package will deliver atmospheric composition (O 3 , H 2 O, NO 2 , HNO 3 , BrO, CO, aerosol, and others) measurements within the extremely important upper troposphere and lower stratosphere region for chemistry and climate studies. One application of interest would be using these measurements in conjunction with total column measurements from nadir-viewing instruments as well as data assimilation systems in order to better monitor and forecast air quality. Also, the heritage of these instruments implies the ALISS measurements will be extremely valuable in the continuation of climate-quality time series of important constituents such as stratospheric aerosols, water vapour, and ozone. Continuity of these vertically resolved data records is currently threatened by a looming gap in satellite-based limb sounders. This talk will outline the ALISS concept and the utility of the measurements.