AIRS_MLS_IND: Satellite Water Vapor Profiles for UTLS

Aqua AIRS-MLS Matchup Indexes V1.0 is part of NASA's MEaSUREs 2012 Program. It provides collocation indexes mapping Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) profiles to Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) profiles to create full-column water vapor (H2O) retrievals. The dataset is managed by NASA's GES DISC and was last updated on March 13, 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling full-column water vapor profiles based on combined AIRS and MLS averaging kernels.
• Analyzing humidity processes in the UTLS region based on the joint satellite product.
• Studying the H2O budget in the atmosphere based on the fused sensitivity ranges of the two instruments.

Strengths

• Integrates data from two major NASA satellite instruments, AIRS and MLS.
• Addresses a known measurement gap by combining products where each loses sensitivity.
• Part of the established MEaSUREs 2012 Program, indicating a formal NASA Earth Science project.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect temporal or spatial bias inherent to the satellite platforms and their orbits.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collocation indexes created by mapping AIRS profile indexes to MLS profile indexes.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 12:54:50.519450; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global, based on satellite coverage.