Aerosol Optical Thickness Measurements During the Forest Ecosystem Dynamics - Multisensor Aircraft Campaign

Forest Ecosystem Dynamics Multisensor Airborne Campaign (FED MAC): Aerosol Optical Thickness The Biospheric Sciences Branch (formerly Earth Resources Branch) within the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and associated University investigators are involved in a research program entitled Forest Ecosystem Dynamics (FED) which is fundamentally concerned with vegetation change of forest ecosystems at local to regional spatial scales (100 to 10,000 meters) and temporal scales ranging from monthly to decadal periods (10 to 100 years).

The nature and extent of the impacts of these changes, as well as the feedbacks to global climate, may be addressed through modeling the interactions of the vegetation, soil, and energy components of the boreal ecosystem. Measurement of atmospheric attenuation and hence estimate of the aerosol optical thickness were made in the Northern Experimental Forest (NEF) in Howland, Maine, with sunphotometers. This parameter is useful in calibration and correction of other measurements made with remote sensing instruments at FED sites.