AIRS Near Real Time Atmospheric Profiles and Surface Properties

240 granules per day of near real time atmospheric data are produced by the AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite to meet a three-hour latency requirement. The product contains retrieved profiles of temperature, water vapor, ozone, carbon monoxide, methane, and estimates of cloud and surface properties, with temperature reported at 28 levels and moisture at 14 layers. This AIRS-only retrieval is managed by NASA's GES DISC due to increased noise in a companion microwave sensor since June 2007.

Use Cases

• Monitoring near real time atmospheric temperature profiles across 28 pressure levels for weather analysis.
• Tracking global water vapor distribution across 14 atmospheric layers for humidity studies.
• Analyzing retrieved estimates of surface properties and cloud conditions for Earth system modeling.
• Studying trace gas profiles, including ozone, carbon monoxide, and methane, for atmospheric chemistry research.
• Using the data's 50 km horizontal resolution for regional-scale climate and environmental studies.

Strengths

• Provides a high temporal frequency with 240 granules produced daily.
• Offers detailed vertical resolution with temperature profiles at 28 levels and moisture at 14 layers.
• Designed for operational use with a guaranteed three-hour latency for near real time applications.
• Includes error estimates associated with all retrieved quantities, supporting data reliability assessment.

Limitations

• The product is AIRS-only and does not include ice cloud property retrievals, limiting cloud analysis.
• It uses predictive rather than definitive ephemeris/attitude data and may use surface climatology, potentially reducing accuracy.
• Specific column names, row counts, and dataset size are unknown across all provided sources.

Provenance

Source

NASA GES DISC

Collection Method

Retrieved from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) grating spectrometer aboard the EOS Aqua satellite.

Time Range

Data collection began after June 2007, with an approximate 16-day orbit repeat cycle.

Freshness

2026-03-13 18:39:24.250308

Geography

Global coverage with a horizontal resolution of 50 km.