Performance and Early Results from the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) Imaging Spectroscopy Mission
- Creators
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Green, Robert O.
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Mahowald, Natalie
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Thompson, David R.
- Ung, Charlene
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Brodrick, Phil
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Pollock, Randy
- Bennett, Matthew
- Lundeen, Sarah
- Joyce, Michael
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Olson-Duvall, Winston
- Oaida, Bogdan
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Bradley, Christine
- Diaz, Ernesto
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Clark, Roger
- Vannan, Suresh
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Swayze, Gregg
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Kokaly, Ray
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Ginoux, Paul
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Miller, Ron
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Okin, Gregory
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Perez Garcia-Pando, Carlos
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Ehlmann, Bethany
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Kalashnikova, Olga
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Painter, Thomas H.
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Realmuto, Vincent
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Chadwick, Dana
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Ben-Dor, Eyal
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Heller Pearlshtien, Daniela
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Guanter, Luis
- Phillips, Benjamin
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Reath, Kevin
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Thorpe, Andrew
- Shaw, Lucas
- Keebler, Abigail
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Ochoa, Francisco
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Grant, Kathleen
- Sen, Amit
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Duren, Riley
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Obiso, Vincenzo
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Gonçalves-Ageitos, Maria
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Huang, Yue
Abstract
The Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) acquires new observations of the Earth from a state-of-the-art, optically fast F/1.8 visible to short wavelength infrared imaging spectrometer with high signal-to-noise ratio and excellent spectroscopic uniformity. EMIT was launched to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on July 14, 2022 local time. The EMIT instrument is the latest in a series of more than 30 imaging spectrometers and testbeds developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, beginning with the Airborne Imaging Spectrometer that first flew in 1982. EMIT's science objectives use the spectral signatures of minerals observed across the Earth's arid and semi-arid lands containing dust sources to update the soil composition of advanced Earth System Models (ESMs) to better understand and reduce uncertainties in mineral dust aerosol radiative forcing at the local, regional, and global scale, now and in the future. EMIT has begun to collect and deliver high-quality mineral composition determinations for the arid land regions of our planet. Over 1 billion high-quality mineral determinations are expected over the course of the one-year nominal science mission. Currently, detailed knowledge of the composition of the Earth's mineral dust source regions is uncertain and traced to less than 5,000 surface sample mineralogical analyses. The development of the EMIT imaging spectrometer instrumentation was completed successfully, despite the severe impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The EMIT Science Data System is complete and running with the full set of algorithms required. These tested algorithms are open source and will be made available to the broader community. These include calibration to measured radiance, atmospheric correction to surface reflectance, mineral composition determination, aggregation to ESM resolution, and ESM runs to address the science objectives. In this paper, the instrument characteristics, ground calibration, in-orbit performance, and early science results are reported.
Additional Information
© 2023 IEEE. The authors gratefully acknowledge all the elements of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, our partners, and the science community who have contributed to the development of the EMIT mission. EMIT is supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Earth Venture Instrument Program under the Earth Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate. This research was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 121556
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20230526-663022000.18
- NASA/JPL/Caltech
- Created
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2023-07-05Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-07-05Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences