Notes from the Field

May the 4STAR Be With You

September 8th, 2014 by Michal Segal Rosenheimer, Research Scientist, NASA Ames Research Center
4STAR on top of C-130

The Spectrometer for Sky-Scanning, Sun-Tracking Atmospheric Research (4STAR) mounted on top of NASA’s C-130 research aircraft.
Credit: NASA

The Spectrometer for Sky-Scanning, Sun-Tracking Atmospheric Research, or 4STAR, is an airborne instrument that measures aerosols (small particles suspended in the atmosphere), gases (ozone for example), and a variety of cloud properties. Currently it is being deployed on the NASA C-130 aircraft on its quest to measure aerosol and cloud properties in the Arctic, helping to answer some of the most difficult questions of climate change: what is the link between sea ice changes, clouds and global warming?

Researchers with 4STAR instrument

NASA Wallops aircraft office engineer Martin Nowicki (left), and Samual LeBlanc and Roy Johnson of the 4-STAR instrument team pose for a photo during 4-STAR instrument calibration.
Credit: NASA / Christy Hansen

How does it work?

The 4STAR instrument has three different modes. The first of these, and the instrument’s main mode, is Sun-Tracking. This is where the instrument tracks the sun’s location in the sky, staring at it to measure the light transmitted from the sun to the instrument as it travels through the atmosphere. If the atmosphere is clean, we would measure the sun’s intensity. But because the atmosphere contains aerosols, gases and cirrus clouds, which are high, thin clouds made of ice crystals, we measure the amount of light that makes it through instead of being scattered and absorbed by these components of the atmosphere. By comparing measured light through the atmosphere to what we would have seen with no atmosphere we can deduce the amount of aerosol and gases in the air.

4STAR sun tracking diagram

A diagram showing 4STAR’s sun-tracking mode. The instrument locks on to the sun and measures the amount of light that makes it through clouds, gases and aerosols. Comparing this with what would be seen in clear air lets researchers calculate the amount of aerosols and gases in the atmosphere. 
Credit: NASA

Another operating mode, which will be used heavily during ARISE, would be the zenith (or upward) viewing mode. Here, we look upward to the sky and measure the diffused radiation that originated from the sun, but now is scattered due to aerosols and clouds. We use this measurement, along with assumptions on ground surface properties, cloud height, and the surrounding atmospheric composition to derive cloud properties such as optical depth (how much light gets through the cloud) and the size of water droplets in the cloud.

4STAR zenith mode diagram

Diagram of how 4STAR measures cloud properties above the aircraft in zenith mode. In this mode, researchers can derive cloud water droplet size and how much light is transmitted through the cloud, or its optical depth.
Credit: NASA

The last and most involved measurement mode we have is the Sky-Scanning mode. Here we measure the diffused sun radiation, that is light not coming directly from the sun, at different distinct angles from the sun (remember that we know where the sun is because we are tracking its location). This radiation is the result of scattered light from aerosols in the atmosphere. The amount of light at the different angles can tell us something about these aerosol particles, such as how well they absorb sunlight (and heat the earth), their shape (sphere or irregular), and their size.

4STAR sky scanning diagram

Diagram showing 4STAR’s sky-scanning mode. The instrument scans the sky above the aircraft to measure how light is scattered by aerosol particles in the air.
Credit: NASA

One Response to “May the 4STAR Be With You”

  1. keisha kochanowski says:

    Thank you for posting picto-grams, it makes for easier understanding. I am a follower and believer in science. I use what I learn here to teach children and share my enthusiasm with them.