Community Satellite Processing Package

  CSPP Microwave integrated Retrieval System (MiRS) Software Version 4.0 Release

19 January 2024

The University of Wisconsin-Madison SSEC is pleased to announce a new release of the NOAA/NESDIS/STAR Microwave integrated Retrieval System (MiRS) software for retrieval of atmospheric profiles, cloud and surface properties from NOAA-21, NOAA-20 and S-NPP ATMS SDR, and NOAA-19, Metop-B and Metop-C AMSU-A and MHS microwave Level 1B sensor data. This package is in support of Direct Broadcast users, and is sponsored by the Community Satellite Processing Package (CSPP) project funded by the NOAA/NASA Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). MiRS is led by Quanhua (Mark) Liu and Chris Grassotti at the NOAA NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR). This release provides MiRS version 11.9 adapted and tested for operation in a real-time direct broadcast environment. For more information on MiRS, please visit https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/mirs/.

The CSPP_MIRS v4.0 software package contains binary executable files and supporting static data files, as well as input and output files for verification of a successful installation.

What is new in CSPP MiRS Version 4.0?
  • The software is no longer distributed in a container, therefore apptainer is no longer required.
  • Software algorithm updated to Version v11r9.
  • Added support for NOAA-21 ATMS.
  • Removed support for NOAA-18 and Metop-A missions.
  • Target Operating System is Rocky Linux 8.8.
  • Run script options have changed. Please see Sections 3.1 and 3.2 in the CSPP MiRS Installation Guide.
System requirements for the CSPP_MIRS v4.0 software are as follows:
  • Intel or AMD CPU with 64-bit instruction support,
  • 16 GB RAM,
  • Rocky Linux 8.8 64-bit Linux; the software has also been tested on Rocky Linux 9.3,
  • 2 GB of disk space (plus space for your own DB data and CSPP_MIRS products).
Supported instruments and inputs:
  • NOAA-21, NOAA-20 and Suomi-NPP ATMS Sensor Data Records (SDR).
  • NOAA-19 AMSU-A and MHS Level 1B, from the ATOVS and AVHRR Processing Package (AAPP).
  • Metop-B and Metop-C AMSU-A and MHS Level 1B, from AAPP.
Two NetCDF4 files are created by the CSPP MiRS software:
  • NPR-MIRS-IMG_v11r9_<satid>_sYYYYMMDDHHMMSSS_eYYYYMMDDHHMMSSS_c*.nc
  • NPR-MIRS-SND_v11r9_<satid>_sYYYYMMDDHHMMSSS_eYYYYMMDDHHMMSSS_c*.nc
The MiRS sounding products are written into the "NPR-MIRS-SND" prefixed file, while surface and precipitation products are written to the “NPR-MIRS-IMG” prefixed file.

Official Validated Products created by MiRS include:
  • Temperature profile over open water ocean
  • Humidity profile over open water ocean
  • Humidity profile over non-coastal Land
  • Total Precipitable Water (TPW) over open water ocean
  • Total Precipitable Water over non-coastal land
  • Land surface temperature
  • Surface Emissivity over land and snow
  • Surface Type Classification
  • Snow Water Equivalent (SWE)
  • Sea Ice Concentration (SIC)
  • Snow Cover Extent (SCE), based on the SWE
  • Vertically-Integrated Non-precipitating Cloud Liquid Water (CLW) over open water ocean
  • Vertically-Integrated Ice Water Path (IWP)
  • Vertically-Integrated Rain Water Path (RWP)
  • Rainfall Rate (RR) over open water ocean and non-coastal, non-snow-covered land surface types
  • Snow Fall Rate (SFR) and Probability of falling snow
  • Effective grain size of snow (over snow-covered land surface)*
  • Multi-Year (MY) Type Sea Ice Concentration*
  • First-Year (FY) Type Sea Ice Concentration*

    • *Note that FY and MY Sea Ice Concentration, as well as Snow Grain Size are not officially operational, but preliminary products, which is a higher maturity level than experimental status.
Experimental Products (not fully validated) created by MiRS: The following products are also produced experimentally for NOAA-20, Suomi-NPP, NOAA-19, Metop-B and Metop-C. Note that they lack a thorough validation due to the absence of reliable ground truth measurements. These are made available to users for the purpose of evaluating their usefulness.
  • Cloud Liquid Water Profile (CLWP) over ocean
  • Surface Temperature (skin) extended to snow-covered land surface type
  • Surface Temperature (skin) extended to open ocean water

DOWNLOAD NOW