AIRS Aqua Near Real Time Atmospheric Support Profiles

The AIRS/Aqua Level 2 Near Real Time Support Retrieval product provides high-resolution atmospheric profiles from infrared sensor data, designed to meet a three-hour latency requirement. It contains 100 vertical levels of data between 1100 and 0.016 mb, including trace gas abundances and intermediate retrieval outputs. The product is generated by NASA's Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) from the AIRS instrument aboard the EOS Aqua satellite.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature and humidity using the 100-level data structure.
• Studying trace gas abundances and their distribution across different pressure levels.
• Investigating cloud properties and atmospheric composition for climate research.
• Assessing retrieval algorithm performance through intermediate outputs like microwave-only retrievals.
• Monitoring atmospheric conditions with near real-time data for operational weather analysis.

Strengths

• Provides 100 vertical levels of atmospheric data, offering high-resolution profiles for modeling.
• Processed to meet a strict three-hour latency requirement for near real-time applications.
• Includes detailed quality assessment information and intermediate retrieval outputs for research.
• Data originates from the AIRS grating spectrometer (R=1200) on the EOS Aqua satellite, a key Earth observation platform.

Limitations

• The product uses AIRS IR only due to increased radiometric noise in the companion AMSU instrument since June 2007, limiting multisensor synergy.
• Near Real Time processing compromises include using predictive ephemeris data and omitting ice cloud property retrievals.
• Cross-source metadata conflicts exist: one platform lists a last updated date of 2026-03-13, which is implausible and suggests a data error.

Provenance

Source

NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC)

Collection Method

Retrieval algorithms applied to infrared spectral data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on the EOS Aqua satellite.

Time Range

Data collection began with the operational lifetime of the AIRS instrument on Aqua; specific start date is unknown from sources.

Freshness

2026-03-13 18:38:52.997745 (from datagov, but this future date is likely an error)

Geography

Global coverage from the polar-orbiting EOS Aqua satellite platform.