The NASA HSRL Pathfinder Mission Concept

The High-Spectral-Resolution Lidar (HSRL) Pathfinder Mission concept is designed to provide HSRL measurements at 532 nm and elastic backscatter lidar measurements at 1064 nm. The instrument is based on Clio, the HSRL that was descoped from NASA’s Atmosphere Observing System (AOS) mission due to cost constraints. The NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) developed the HSRL Pathfinder concept as an example of a lower-cost mission to advance the technology and demonstrate the measurement capability originally planned for AOS. Cost savings are achieved via a Class-D instrument development approach and some reductions in performance from the original Clio design. Despite these changes, the HSRL Pathfinder Mission promises to provide valuable observations for advancing studies of aerosol and cloud radiative effects, cloud microphysics, aerosol-cloud interaction, aerosol transport and speciation, and air quality. The design also enables scientifically important observations of depth-resolved ocean subsurface optical properties, snow water equivalent, and seasonal sea ice, making HSRL Pathfinder a truly multifunctional lidar mission.