PREFIRE: Atmospheric Temperature and Water Vapor Profiles from CubeSat

NASA's PREFIRE_SAT2_2B-ATM dataset provides retrieved atmospheric properties from the PREFIRE-SAT2 CubeSat, which carries a 63-channel thermal infrared spectrometer measuring radiation from 5 to 53 µm. The data, derived via an Optimal Estimation retrieval, includes column water vapor, temperature and pressure profiles, and surface parameters to characterize polar far-infrared emissions. This information aims to fill knowledge gaps in the global energy budget for assimilation into climate and circulation models.

Use Cases

• Assimilating column water vapor and temperature profiles into global circulation models to improve climate predictions.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of surface temperature and pressure in polar regions to study local energy dynamics.
• Validating radiative transfer models using retrieved atmospheric properties from 63-channel spectrometer data.
• Investigating the relationship between cloud conditions (from mask inputs) and retrieved water vapor profiles.
• Tracking changes in scene footprint size (~11.8 km x 34.8 km initially) over time as satellite orbit decays.

Strengths

• Provides novel, large-scale measurements of far-infrared radiation (5-53 µm) from polar regions, a previously under-sampled part of the spectrum.
• Offers high temporal resolution data at 0.707 seconds per observation.
• Data collection is global with concentrated coverage in the polar regions, starting from June 29, 2024.
• Derived from a sophisticated retrieval method (Optimal Estimation) that integrates cloud mask, meteorological, and surface data.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as specific column names, row counts, and exact file sizes are not provided across any platform.
• The spatial footprint of each scene (initially 11.8 km x 34.8 km) will decrease over time as the satellite's orbit altitude decays, complicating long-term spatial comparisons.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.

Provenance

Source

NASA/LARC_CLOUD, from the PREFIRE-SAT2 CubeSat mission.

Collection Method

Data derived from PREFIRE Spectral Radiance (Level 1B) using an Optimal Estimation retrieval via a Radiative Transfer Model.

Time Range

From June 29, 2024 onward (ongoing).

Freshness

2026-04-09 23:04:30.397578

Geography

Global, with the greatest concentration of data in the polar regions.