Improving weather and climate prediction with the AIRS on Aqua

Thomas S. Pagano

doi:10.1117/12.826986

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21 August 2009 Improving weather and climate prediction with the AIRS on Aqua

Thomas S. Pagano

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Proceedings Volume 7452, Earth Observing Systems XIV; 74520G (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.826986
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2009, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on the EOS Aqua Spacecraft was launched on May 4, 2002. Early in the mission, the AIRS instrument demonstrated its value to the weather forecasting community with better than 6 hours of improvement on the 5 day forecast. Now with over six years of consistent and stable data from AIRS, scientists are able to examine processes governing weather and climate and look at seasonal and interannual trends from the AIRS data with high statistical confidence. Naturally, long-term climate trends require a longer data set, but indications are that the Aqua spacecraft and the AIRS instrument should last beyond 2016. This paper briefly describes the AIRS products, reviews past science and weather accomplishments from AIRS data product users and highlights recent findings in these areas.

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Thomas S. Pagano "Improving weather and climate prediction with the AIRS on Aqua", Proc. SPIE 7452, Earth Observing Systems XIV, 74520G (21 August 2009); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.826986

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