HIRDLS/Aura: Daily Atmospheric Profiles from 2005 to 2008

NASA's Aura satellite collected infrared emissions from the upper troposphere, stratosphere, and mesosphere between January 29, 2005 and March 17, 2008. The HIRDLS instrument measured vertical profiles of ozone, water vapor, aerosols, temperature, and other geophysical parameters on approximately 5600 profile scans per day. Data are stored in HDF-EOS5 format, with each file containing a single day's swath of measurements and geolocation fields.

Use Cases

• Model stratospheric ozone depletion based on O3 and NO2 profiles
• Analyze atmospheric temperature trends based on vertical temperature profiles
• Study aerosol distribution based on extinction measurements at 12.1 and 8.3 microns
• Monitor trace gases like CFC-11 and CFC-12 for climate policy assessment
• Calculate cloud top pressure for cloud property studies

Strengths

• Data covers a specific 3-year mission period from 2005 to 2008
• Provides vertical profiles on 24 levels per decade of pressure, corresponding to about 1 km resolution
• Contains measurements for 12 targeted species and parameters, with CH4 being the only omission in the final version

Limitations

• Observations were only made from the far azimuth scan, resulting in limited data coverage from +80 to -64 degrees latitude
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measured by the HIRDLS infrared instrument on the Aura satellite.

Time Range

January 29, 2005 to March 17, 2008

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 01:39:50.942452; freshness should be verified

Geography

Global, with limited coverage from +80 to -64 degrees latitude