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MAS

Since the mid-1990’s, MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS) has been flying on NASA’s high-altitude ER-2 aircraft, collecting similar spectral information as MODIS. From an altitude of 20 km, MAS spatial resolution is ~50 m rather than MODIS’s ~500m. The MAS (or one of its family members, eMAS, MASTER, or AMS) has been supporting field experiments, such as TARFOX, CLAMS, TC4, TCSP, PODEX, and most recently SEAC4RS. MAS has the necessary wavelengths to perform modern dark target aerosol retrieval over land and ocean. Because of the slight differences in wavelength bands, the aerosol retrieval will need some modifications. The dark target aerosol team is currently working towards developing a robust, Collection 6-like aerosol algorithm for the MAS family of airborne instruments. An example from the recent SEAC4RS campaign is shown below.