AIRS Aqua Atmospheric Sounding Support Product

Global atmospheric data is provided by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) aboard NASA's Aqua satellite. This Level 3 support product contains 8-day aggregated, 1-degree resolution fields from the AIRS, AMSU, and HSB sensor group. The dataset includes intermediary or unvalidated values and is managed by NASA's GES DISC.

Use Cases

• Analyzing atmospheric temperature profiles using infrared and microwave sensor data.
• Studying humidity distribution patterns from combined AIRS and HSB measurements.
• Investigating cloud properties and atmospheric composition from visible and infrared spectral data.
• Validating climate models with global, 1-degree resolution geospatial data.
• Examining trends in atmospheric variables over 8-day aggregated periods.

Strengths

• Data originates from a sophisticated sensor group combining visible, infrared, and microwave instruments.
• Provides global coverage at a consistent 1-degree spatial resolution.
• Managed by NASA's authoritative GES DISC organization.

Limitations

• Contains fields that are not fully validated and may include values from failed retrievals.
• No quality control information is available for some fields.
• Key metadata like row count, column names, and exact size are unknown across all platforms.

Provenance

Source

NASA GES DISC

Collection Method

Remote sensing data gathered by the AIRS, AMSU, and HSB instruments aboard the Aqua satellite.

Freshness

2026-03-13 19:05:21.046059

Geography

Global