NASA GES DISC DAAC Data Holdings for AIRS/Aqua

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is a high-resolution infrared sounder on the Earth Observing System polar-orbiting platform, EOS Aqua, which was successfully launched on May 4, 2002. AIRS is closely coupled with two microwave instruments, the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU-A) and the Humidity Sounder for Brazil (HSB). The data products from AIRS/AMSU-A/HSB are archived and distributed at the Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) located at the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). AIRS has 2,378 channels measuring in the infrared range 3.74-15.4 μm and four channels measuring in the visible/near-infrared range 0.4-1.1 μm. AMSU-A is a temperature sounder that primarily provides atmospheric information in the presence of clouds, which is used to correct the AIRS infrared measurements for the effects of the clouds. Likewise, HSB provides information on snow/ice cover, precipitation, and the coarse distribution of moisture in the troposphere. Combined with simultaneous measurements from AIRS, the calibrated brightness temperature from AMSU-A and HSB is used to initialize the atmospheric moisture profile required for the retrieval of the final AIRS geophysical products. The data product suite includes level 1B combined, geolocated and calibrated radiances and will include level 2 final retrievals of surface skin temperature, surface albedo, integrated precipitable water, radiative fluxes, various cloud properties and trace gases (ozone, methane, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide). Furthermore, AIRS/AMSU-A/HSB will obtain atmospheric temperature profiles with an accuracy of 1K for every 1 km layer in the troposphere (1K for every 4 km layer in stratosphere) and humidity profiles with an accuracy 20% in 2 km layers from the surface up through the troposphere. Global coverage is obtained twice daily (day and night) on a 1:30 p.m. sun-synchronous orbit from a 705-km altitude. For processing convenience, the data along the orbit is divided into 6-minute scenes. Each orbit has approximately 16 scenes. The Atmospheric Dynamics Data Support Team (ADDST) at the GES DISC DAAC will be providing various user services including assistance with product ordering and distribution, channel/variable subsetting, data visualization, access to various technical documents, data mining, and educational resources. The data will be available via GES DISC DAAC Search and Order (http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/), the EOS Data Gateway (EDG) (http://eos.nasa.gov/imswelcome/), and an FTP site containing subsetted and reformatted data products. For more information, please visit AIRS Data Support web site at http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/atmodyn/airs/.