AQUA AIRS CLIMCAPS: Daily Atmospheric Profiles

Sounder SIPS provides Level 3 daily gridded data from the CLIMCAPS algorithm, which analyzes infrared and microwave measurements from the AIRS and AMSU instruments aboard the EOS Aqua satellite. The dataset includes retrieved profiles of temperature, water vapor, ozone, carbon monoxide, methane, and cloud properties, with a horizontal resolution of 50 km. Temperature profiles are reported at 100 vertical levels between 1100 mb and 0.1 mb.

Use Cases

• Monitoring global carbon monoxide pollution levels using retrieved CO profiles.
• Analyzing vertical temperature structure across 100 atmospheric levels for weather and climate modeling.
• Studying cloud-top characteristics and surface skin temperature for Earth system science.
• Tracking methane and ozone distributions to assess atmospheric chemistry and climate change.
• Investigating water vapor profiles and precipitation rates for hydrological studies.

Strengths

• Provides a full atmospheric state characterization using an Optimal Estimation methodology.
• Offers high vertical resolution with temperature profiles at 100 levels between 1100 mb and 0.1 mb.
• Combines infrared (AIRS) and microwave (AMSU) sensor data for improved sounding accuracy.

Limitations

• A specific derived product, 'co_mmr_midtrop', contains a significant bias due to a molecular weight conversion error.
• Column names and exact row counts are not provided in the available metadata.
• Dataset size and license details are inconsistently reported across platforms.

Provenance

Source

GES_DISC, using data from the AIRS and AMSU instruments on NASA's EOS Aqua satellite.

Collection Method

Retrieved via the CLIMCAPS (Community Long-term Infrared Microwave Coupled Product System) algorithm.

Freshness

2026-04-09 20:30:30.096785

Geography

Global coverage with a horizontal resolution of 50 km.