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Abstract:
The HAWC (High-altitude Aerosols, Water vapour and Clouds) satellite mission is a highly synergistic observing system of three Canadian passive imaging sensors: the Aerosol Limb Imager (ALI) instrument, the Thin Ice Clouds in the Far InfraRed Emissions (TICFIRE), and the Spatial Heterodyne Observations of Water (SHOW) instrument. The mission was confirmed by the federal government as the Canadian contribution to NASA’s Atmospheric Observing System; a satellite constellation that will include multiple satellites with instruments to monitor aerosol, clouds, and precipitation as part of the Earth System Observatory (ESO). The HAWC instruments will work together to obtain vertically resolved measurements of aerosol and water vapour together with nadir measurements of radiation, thin ice cloud content, and cloud microphysical properties. These coordinated measurements will help build a more comprehensive understanding of climate-critical interactions of aerosol, cloud, and water vapour in the atmosphere.