Evan M. Manning

An anomaly correlation skill score for the evaluation of the performance of Hyperspectral Infrared Sounders

With the availability of very accurate six hour forecasts, the metric of accuracy alone for the evaluation of the performance of a retrieval system can produce misleading results: the retrievals may be statistically accurate, but be of little value compared to the accurate forecast. A useful characterization of the quality of a retrieval system and its potential to contribute to an improved weather forecast is its skill, which we define as the ability to make retrievals of geophysical parameters which are closer to the truth than the six hour forecast. We illustrate retrieval skill using one day of AMSU-A and AIRS data with three different retrieval algorithms. In the spirit of achieving global retrievals under clear and cloudy conditions, we evaluated retrieval accuracy and skill for 90% of the covered area. Two of the three algorithms meet the 1 K/1 km RAOB quality accuracy requirement and have skill between 900 and 150 hPa, but none have skill between the surface and 900 hPa. AIRS was launched on the EOS Aqua spacecraft in May 2002 into a 705 km polar sun-synchronous orbit with accurately maintained 1:30 PM ascending node. Essentially un-interrupted data are freely available since September 2002.

Version 5 product improvements from the atmospheric infrared sounder (AIRS)

The AIRS instrument was launched in May 2002 into a polar sun-synchronous orbit onboard the EOS Aqua Spacecraft. Since then we have released three versions of the AIRS data product to the scientific community. AIRS, in conjunction with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), produces temperature profiles with 1K/km accuracy on a global scale, as well as water vapor profiles and trace gas amounts. The first version of software, Version 2.0 was available to scientists shortly after launch with Version 3.0 released to the public in June 2003. Like all AIRS product releases, all products are accessible to the public in order to have the best user feedback on issues that appear in the data. Fortunately the products have had exceptional accuracy and stability. This paper presents the improvement between AIRS Version 4.0 and Version 5.0 products and shows examples of the new products available in Version 5.0.

AIRS/AMSU/HSB on EOS Aqua: first-year post-launch assessment

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), and Humidity Sounder from Brazil (HSB) are three instruments onboard the Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua Spacecraft. Together, they form the Aqua Infrared and Microwave Sounding Suite (AIMSS). This paper discusses the science objectives and the status of the instruments and their data products one year after launch. All instruments went through a successful activation and calibration and have produced exceptional, calibrated, Level 1B data products. The Level 1B Product Generation Executables (PGEs) have been given to NOAA and the GSFC DAAC for production and distribution of data products. After nine months of operations, the HSB instrument experienced an electrical failure of the scanner. Despite the loss of HSB, early validation results have shown the AIRS and AMSU are producing very good temperature profiles.

Improving AIRS radiance spectra in high contrast scenes using MODIS

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 is designed to measure temperature and water vapor profiles for improvement in weather forecast accuracy and improved understanding of climate processes. As with most instruments, the AIRS Point Spread Functions (PSFs) are not the same for all detectors. When viewing a non-uniform scene, this causes a significant radiometric error in some channels that is scene dependent and cannot be removed without knowledge of the underlying scene. The magnitude of the error depends on the combination of non-uniformity of the AIRS spatial response for a given channel and the non-uniformity of the scene, but is typically only noticeable in about 1% of the scenes and about 10% of the channels. The current solution is to avoid those channels when performing geophysical retrievals. In this effort we use data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument to provide information on the scene uniformity that is used to correct the AIRS data. For the vast majority of channels and footprints the technique works extremely well when compared to a Principal Component (PC) reconstruction of the AIRS channels. In some cases where the scene has high inhomogeneity in an irregular pattern, and in some channels, the method can actually degrade the spectrum. Most of the degraded channels appear to be slightly affected by random noise introduced in the process, but those with larger degradation may be affected by alignment errors in the AIRS relative to MODIS or uncertainties in the PSF. Despite these errors, the methodology shows the ability to correct AIRS radiances in non-uniform scenes under some of the worst case conditions and improves the ability to match AIRS and MODIS radiances in non-uniform scenes.

Space View Issues for Hyperspectral Sounders

The expectation for climate quality measurements from hyperspectral sounders is absolute calibration accuracy at the 100 mK level and stability at the < 40 mK/decade level. The Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS)1, Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS), and Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) hyperspectral sounders currently in orbit have been shown to agree well over most of their brightness temperature range. Some larger discrepancies are seen, however, at the coldest scene temperatures, such as those seen in Antarctic winter and deep convective clouds. A key limiting factor for the calibrated scene radiance accuracy for cold scenes is how well the effective radiance of the cold space view pertains to the scene views. The spaceview signal is composed of external sources and instrument thermal emission at about 270 K from the scan mirror, external baffles, etc. Any difference in any of these contributions between spaceviews and scene views will impact the absolute calibration accuracy, and the impact can be critical for cold scenes. Any change over time in these will show up as an apparent trend in calibrated radiances. We use AIRS data to investigate the validity of the spaceview assumption in view of the 100 mK accuracy and 40 mK/decade trend expectations. We show that the space views used for the cold calibration point for AIRS v5 Level-1B products meet these standards except under special circumstances and that AIRS v6 Level-1B products will meet them under all circumstances. This analysis also shows the value of having multiple distinct space views to give operational redundancy and analytic data, and that reaching climate quality requires continuing monitoring of aging instruments and adjustment of calibration.

Calibration status of the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder after eleven years in operation

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is a grating array infrared hyperspectral sounder with 2378 channels from 3.75 to 15.4 microns with spectral resolution 1200 to 1400 depending on the channel. AIRS was designed as an aid to weather prediction and for atmospheric process studies. It produces profiles of atmospheric temperature and water vapor. Because of its spectral coverage and spectral resolution it is sensitive to a number of trace atmospheric constituents including CO2, CO, SO2, O3, and CH4. The AIRS sensitivity, stability, and long life have led to its use in climate process studies and climate model validation, both of which place far more stringent requirements on calibration than weather forecasting does. This paper describes results from several special calibration sequences, originally developed for prelaunch testing, that have been used to monitor the AIRS calibration accuracy and instrument health on-orbit, including the scan mirror, space view response, and channel health. It also describes reanalyses of pre-launch calibration data used to determine calibration parameters. Finally, it shows comparisons of AIRS radiometry with two other hyperspectral infrared sounders presently in space—IASI and CrIS.

Level-1C product from AIRS: principal component filtering

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), launched on the EOS Aqua spacecraft on May 4, 2002, is a grating spectrometer with 2378 channels in the range 3.7 to 15.4 microns. In a grating spectrometer each individual radiance measurement is largely independent of all others. Most measurements are extremely accurate and have very low noise levels. However, some channels exhibit high noise levels or other anomalous behavior, complicating applications needing radiances throughout a band, such as cross-calibration with other instruments and regression retrieval algorithms. The AIRS Level-1C product is similar to Level-1B but with instrument artifacts removed. This paper focuses on the “cleaning” portion of Level-1C, which identifies bad radiance values within spectra and produces substitute radiances using redundant information from other channels. The substitution is done in two passes, first with a simple combination of values from neighboring channels, then with principal components. After results of the substitution are shown, differences between principal component reconstructed values and observed radiances are used to investigate detailed noise characteristics and spatial misalignment in other channels.

Performance status of the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder ten years after launch

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is a hyperspectral infrared instrument on the EOS Aqua Spacecraft, launched on May 4, 2002. AIRS has 2378 infrared channels ranging from 3.7 μm to 15.4 μm and a 13.5 km footprint at nadir. The AIRS is a “facility” instrument developed by NASA as an experimental demonstration of advanced technology for remote sensing and the benefits of high resolution infrared spectra to science investigations. AIRS, in conjunction with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), produces temperature profiles with 1K/km accuracy on a global scale, as well as water vapor profiles and trace gas amounts for CO2, CO, SO2, O3 and CH4. AIRS data are used for weather forecasting, climate process studies and validating climate models. The AIRS instrument has far exceeded its required design life of 5 years, with over 10 years of operations as of September 2012. While the instrument has performed exceptionally well, with little signs of wear, the AIRS Project continues to monitor and maintain the health of AIRS, characterize its behavior and improve performance where possible. Radiometric stability has been monitored and trending shows better than 16 mK/year stability. Spectral calibration stability is better than 1 ppm/year, and a new gain table was recently uploaded to recover 100 significantly degraded or dead channels by switching to their redundant counterpart. At this time we expect the AIRS to continue to perform well for the next decade.

Comparison of the AIRS, IASI, and CrIS 900 cm-1 channel for Dome Concordia

We compare AIRS, IASI-A and CrIS under the cold conditions encountered in the daily overpasses of Dome Concordia, located on a high plateau in Antarctica, between May 2012 and March 2016. The mean brightness temperature at DomeC for the 900 cm-1 atmospheric window channel is 218K, but it varies seasonally from 185K to 255K. Averaged over all simultaneous overpass data AIRS is 26±13 mK warmer than IASI-A, AIRS is 116±7 mK colder than CrIS. This is excellent agreement and consistent with SNO analysis in the literature. However, we find that differences for both AIRS/IASI-A and AIRS/CrIS are temperature dependent. AIRS is 120 mK colder at 200K, but 150 mK warmer at 230K than IASI-A. AIRS is 120 mK colder at 200K, 50mK colder at 230K than CrIS. Differences and scene temperature sensitivity of this magnitude have also been reported by other investigators. A scene temperature dependence bias can create a sampling bias which need to be taken into account when comparing data from current instruments, and even more so when analyzing data from vintage instruments with respect to climate change.

Tropical SNO comparisons of AIRS and CrIS calibration for windows

AIRS on EOS-Aqua and CrIS on Suomi NPP are two hyperspectral infrared sounders with similar capabilities and orbits, so there is a great opportunity to compare their absolute calibration while they are both in orbit. This insures that long-term climate record can be created by concatenating the two instrument records. There are significant differences in instrument architecture which may lead to subtle differences and complicate attempts to combine the records. We use Tropical Simultaneous Nadir Observations (TSNOs), cases where both instruments are looking nearly at the same place at the same time, to explore the differences. Due to the presence of cold clouds and clear hot desert surface, the data cover a brightness temperature range from 190 K to 340 K. We concentrate on the differences between the mean of the two instruments using atmospheric window channels as function of brightness temperature in 20-K wide bins. With the currently available AIRS and CrIS official calibrated data, radiometric differences as large as 0.3 K are seen at the extreme temperatures. These differences may be reduced in future releases of the AIRS and CrIS calibration.