Ground testing and campaign intercomparisons with the NAST-I airborne FTS

The NASA / JPSS Airborne Sounder Testbed - Interferometer (NAST-I) is a well-proven airborne remote sensing system, which has flown in 19 previous field campaigns aboard the high altitude NASA ER-2, Northrop Grumman / Scaled Composites Proteus, and NASA WB-57 aircraft since initially being flight qualified in 1998. While originally developed to provide experimental observations needed to finalize specifications and test proposed designs and data processing algorithms for the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) flying aboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (SNPP) and the Joint Polar Satellite System, JPSS (formerly NPOESS, prior to program restructuring), its unprecedented data quality and system characteristics have contributed to a variety of atmospheric research and measurement validation objectives. This paper will provide a program overview and update, including a summary of measurement system capabilities, with a primary focus on postmission ground testing and characterization performed subsequent to the recently conducted Suomi NPP (SNPP) airborne field campaign.