AIRS Radiometric Accuracy and Stability and Level 1 Product Updates
Abstract
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on the EOS Aqua Spacecraft was launched on May 4, 2002. AIRS acquires hyperspectral infrared radiances in 2378 channels ranging in wavelength from 3.7-15.4 um with spectral resolution of better than 1200, and spatial resolution of 13.5 km with global daily coverage. The AIRS was designed to measure temperature and water vapor profiles for improvement in weather forecast and improved parameterization of climate processes. Currently the AIRS Level 1B Radiance Products are assimilated by NWP centers worldwide and have shown considerable forecast improvement. AIRS L1 and L2 products are widely used for studying critical climate processes related to water vapor feedback, atmospheric transport and cloud properties. AIRS trace gas products include ozone profiles, carbon monoxide, and the first global maps of mid-tropospheric carbon dioxide. The global daily coverage of AIRS allows scientists to follow the transport of these gases to aid in validation of chemical/weather transport models.
The AIRS radiances are calibrated using a uniform on-board blackbody and full aperture space view and are recognized to have stability and accuracy for most channels of better than 200 mK for most scene types. Reanalysis of pre-flight and on-orbit calibration data has led to a new set of calibration coefficients for polarization offset, emissivity, and nonlinearity. The new coefficients are planned for implementation in the Version 7 calibration release of AIRS Level 1B product. Additional changes have been made to the AIRS Level 1C product that removes bad channels, fills spectral gaps and mitigates co-registration errors. The improved accuracy of AIRS combined with the exceptional on-orbit stability make AIRS an invaluable instrument for weather and climate science research.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.A32G..08P
- Keywords:
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- 3360 Remote sensing;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 0520 Data analysis: algorithms and implementation;
- COMPUTATIONAL GEOPHYSICS;
- 1855 Remote sensing;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 6969 Remote sensing;
- RADIO SCIENCE