NPOESS Aircraft Sounder Testbed-Microwave (NAST-M): results from CAMEX-3 and WINTEX

The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Aircraft Sounding Testbed, or NAST, has recently been developed and deployed on the NASA ER-2 high-altitude aircraft. The testbed consists of two colocated scanning instruments: a Fourier-transform interferometer spectrometer (NAST-I) with spectral coverage of 3.7-15.5 /spl mu/m, and a passive microwave spectrometer (NAST-M) with channels near oxygen absorption lines at 50-57 GHz and 118.75 GHz. NAST-M collected imagery from over 20 overpasses of hurricanes Bonnie and Earl during CAMEX-3 (Convection and Moisture Experiment, Florida, Summer 1998). The imagery clearly reveals the warm cores and convection morphology of hurricanes Bonnie and Earl.