CLIMCAPS: Satellite Atmospheric Profiles from AIRS and AMSU

CLIMCAPS retrievals provide atmospheric state profiles from infrared and microwave sensors aboard NASA's Aqua satellite. The dataset includes vertical profiles of temperature, water vapor, ozone, and trace gases like carbon monoxide and methane, with a horizontal resolution of 50 km. It is produced using an Optimal Estimation methodology applied to data from the AIRS spectrometer and AMSU sounder.

Use Cases

• Monitoring tropospheric ozone and methane concentrations based on retrieved atmospheric chemistry profiles.
• Analyzing cloud top temperature and fraction based on infrared effective cloud characteristics.
• Studying vertical temperature structure from 1100 mb to 0.1 mb based on the 100-level temperature profile.
• Estimating sea surface skin temperature based on retrieved surface thermal properties.
• Calculating total precipitable water based on moisture profiles reported between 1100 mb and 300 mb.

Strengths

• Provides full atmospheric profiles for multiple gases, including carbon monoxide, methane, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, and nitric acid.
• Offers high vertical resolution with temperature profiles at 100 levels between 1100 mb and 0.1 mb.
• Data is collected from a well-established satellite instrument (AIRS) with a grating spectrometer (R=1200) and a complementary microwave sensor (AMSU).

Limitations

• Column names and exact data structure are not provided in the available metadata.
• Specific row counts, file sizes, and granular temporal coverage details are missing.
• The license is listed as 'other-license-specified' without further clarification.

Provenance

Source

NASA GES DISC, from the Aqua satellite's AIRS and AMSU instruments.

Collection Method

Retrieved via the CLIMCAPS algorithm using Optimal Estimation.

Freshness

Last updated metadata indicates 2026-04-09.

Geography

Global coverage from a polar-orbiting satellite with an orbit repeat cycle of approximately 16 days.