CHIRP: Calibrated Hyperspectral Infrared Radiances for Climate

From September 2002 onward, this dataset provides a continuous, calibrated record of Level 1 infrared radiances from three satellite sounders: AIRS on EOS-Aqua (2002-2016), CrIS on SNPP (2016-2018), and CrIS on JPSS-1/NOAA-20 (2018+). It is designed for climate studies by applying a consistent spectral response function and removing inter-instrument radiometric offsets, with SNPP-CrIS as the calibration standard. The product is stored in instrument-native granules containing all necessary retrieval information.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term trends in atmospheric temperature and composition based on calibrated radiance time series.
• Developing and validating atmospheric retrieval algorithms using the consistent spectral response function across instruments.
• Studying aerosols and trace gases like sulfur dioxide using hyperspectral infrared wavelength data.
• Conducting cross-platform sensor inter-comparison studies for climate data records.

Strengths

• Provides a continuous, cross-calibrated radiance record from 2002 to the present, covering over two decades.
• Uses a consistent spectral response function and removes inter-instrument offsets, creating a homogeneous dataset for climate analysis.
• Time periods were selected to correspond with optimal performance of companion microwave sounders, avoiding known instrument outages.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as column names, row counts, and dataset size are unspecified across all sources.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.
• The provenance of the 'last updated' date (2026-04-09) is inconsistent, as it appears to be a future date.

Provenance

Source

GES_DISC (Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center)

Collection Method

Derived from satellite instruments: AIRS on EOS-Aqua, and CrIS on SNPP and JPSS-1/NOAA-20.

Time Range

2002-09-01 to present

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:57:25.475809

Geography

Global coverage from sun-synchronous orbiting satellites.