Atmospheric Infrared Sounder - Temperature and Precipitable Water
Observations
Description:
The AIRS, Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, on board the Aqua
spacecraft was created by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in order
to provide accurate, detailed atmospheric measurements for weather
and climate applications. The sounder provides daily global
coverage, even in the presence of clouds. The AIRS instrument
measures humidity, temperature, cloud properties, and greenhouse gas
concentrations. According to the AIRS website, AIRS will:
- improve weather forecasting
- establish the connection between severe weather and climate
change
- determine if the global water cycle is accelerating
- detect the effects of greenhouse gases
"These new data will significantly improve our ability to observe
and characterize today's climate with greater accuracy, which is key
to increasing our confidence in climate prediction models," said
Moustafa Chahine, AIRS science team leader at JPL. The key to
improving climate and weather models is more numerous and accurate
global observations. Before the AIRS data was available, most
temperature soundings were available from weather balloons which are
only launched twice a day at selected locations. AIRS provides
daily global coverage at comparable accuracy of radiosondes on
weather balloons. Six of the archived AIRS datasets are available
for Science On a Sphere. All of the AIRS SOS data covers the period
from November 1, 2005 through November 1, 2006. Temperature at
925mb, 500mb, and 300mb is available, as well as precipitable water
from 1000 - 700mb, 700 - 500mb, and 500 - 100mb.
Notable Features:
- Data available through several layers of the atmosphere
- Seasonal changes in temperature and precipitable water
Data Category
Major: Atmosphere
Keywords:
Atmosphere, NASA, satellites, weather prediction, AIRS, JPL
| Data Set Name | airs/1000-700_water |
| Data Set Source | Atmospheric Infrared Sounder NASA/Jet
Propulsion Laboratory |
| Data Set Developer | NASA JPL |
| Visualization Developer | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
|
| Audio | No |
| Contact | NASA JPL |
| Download | FTP |
| Data Set Name | airs/300_temp |
| Data Set Source | Atmospheric Infrared Sounder NASA/Jet
Propulsion Laboratory |
| Data Set Developer | NASA JPL |
| Visualization Developer | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
|
| Audio | No |
| Contact | NASA JPL |
| Download | FTP |
| Data Set Name | airs/500-100_water |
| Data Set Source | Atmospheric Infrared Sounder NASA/Jet
Propulsion Laboratory |
| Data Set Developer | NASA JPL |
| Visualization Developer | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
|
| Audio | No |
| Contact | NASA JPL |
| Download | FTP |
| Data Set Name | airs/500_temp |
| Data Set Source | Atmospheric Infrared Sounder NASA/Jet
Propulsion Laboratory |
| Data Set Developer | NASA JPL |
| Visualization Developer | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
|
| Audio | No |
| Contact | NASA JPL |
| Download | FTP |
| Data Set Name | airs/700-500_water |
| Data Set Source | Atmospheric Infrared Sounder NASA/Jet
Propulsion Laboratory |
| Data Set Developer | NASA JPL |
| Visualization Developer | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
|
| Audio | No |
| Contact | NASA JPL |
| Download | FTP |
| Data Set Name | airs/925_temp |
| Data Set Source | Atmospheric Infrared Sounder NASA/Jet
Propulsion Laboratory |
| Data Set Developer | NASA JPL |
| Visualization Developer | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
|
| Audio | No |
| Contact | NASA JPL |
| Download | FTP |
AIRS 500 - 100mb Precipitable Water (11 mb) 
AIRS 925mb Temperature (6 mb)