UC Davis

The topic of combining observations from instruments of different frequencies and sensitivities on remote sensing platforms has been underutilized in undergraduate and graduate atmospheric science curricula, but is vital to obtaining holistic views of the Earth climate system. An online education applet on this topic has been developed for use in radar and remote sensing atmospheric science courses that meets the requirements outlined in Table 1. The developed applet attempts to reduce the curriculum gap by guiding students through atmospheric weather phenomena and allowing them to explore the performance of a variety of radar frequencies and characteristics. This applet leverages a high-resolution cloud-resolving model and satellite radar simulator to provide a synthetic learning laboratory environment. It contains one-to-one comparisons between the simulated environment and approximate observations of that environment through the use of hypothetical remote sensing instruments. A limited set of orbits and planar views are selected to highlight advantages and shortfalls of potential instrument configurations. Future formal assessments of the learning tool will allows its effectiveness to be quantified and guide further improvement of the tool beyond currently planned development activities.