First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE) Cirrus Phase I Langley Research Center (LARC) Eight Inch Lidar

Specifically, the goals of FIRE are (1) to improve basic understanding of the interaction of physical processes in determining life cycles of cirrus and marine stratocumulus systems and the radiative properties of these clouds during their life cycles and (2) to investigate the interrelationships between the ISCCP data, GCM parameterizations, and higher space and time resolution cloud data.To-date, four intensive field-observation periods were planned and executed: a cirrus IFO (October 13-November 2, 1986); a marine stratocumulus IFO off the southwestern coast of California (June 29-July 20, 1987); a second cirrus IFO in southeastern Kansas (November 13-December 7, 1991); and a second marine stratocumulus IFO in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean (June 1-June 28, 1992).

Each mission combined coordinated satellite, airborne, and surface observations with modeling studies to investigate the cloud properties and physical processes of the cloud systems.The Langley Research Center (LARC) Cloud Lidar is a dual-channel polarization sensitive lidar using a frequency doubled Nd: YAG laser as a linearly polarized transmitter and an eight inch Cassegrainian telescope as a receiver. Backscattered laser light collected by the receiver is collimated, directed through a half wave plate, and then passed through polarizing optics which decompose the signal into two components, one parallel and the other perpendicular to the polarization plane of the transmitted beam.