AIRS Aqua Atmospheric Retrievals Using HSB Instrument

Gridded atmospheric retrievals from the AIRS, AMSU, and HSB instruments aboard NASA's Aqua satellite. The dataset provides 8-day global averages of thermodynamic parameters and trace gas profiles on a 1x1 degree grid. It covers a specific five-month period from September 2002 through January 2003 when the HSB instrument was operational.

Use Cases

• Analyzing global distributions of carbon monoxide, methane, and ozone using their total amounts and vertical profiles.
• Studying cloud properties and their vertical distribution via columns for cloud amount, height, top pressure, and temperature.
• Examining surface and atmospheric temperature trends using skin temperature, air temperature at the surface, and temperature profiles.
• Calculating water vapor content in the atmosphere using column precipitable water and water vapor profile data.
• Investigating tropopause characteristics and surface pressure for synoptic-scale atmospheric studies.

Strengths

• Provides standard deviation and input count grids alongside mean values, enabling uncertainty assessment and custom aggregation.
• Includes a wide range of geophysical parameters, from skin temperature to trace gas profiles like carbon monoxide.
• Data is globally gridded at a consistent 1x1 degree resolution, facilitating spatial analysis.

Limitations

• Dataset coverage is limited to only five months (September 2002 to January 2003) due to HSB instrument failure.
• Sources conflict on license information: NASA Earthdata lists none, while Data.gov lists 'other-license-specified'.
• Specific column names and total row or file counts are not provided by any source.

Provenance

Source

GES_DISC (NASA)

Collection Method

Retrievals from the AIRS, AMSU, and HSB instruments on the EOS Aqua satellite, averaged and binned into 8-day global grids.

Time Range

September 2002 through January 2003

Freshness

2003-02-08 23:59:59.999000

Geography

Global, -180.0 to +180.0 deg longitude, -90.0 to +90.0 deg latitude.