CIMSS Seminar Series:
21 February 2007
Cloudy sounding and cloud-top height retrieval from AIRS alone
Elisabeth Weisz
High-spectral resolution measurements from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) onboard the EOS (Earth Observing System) Aqua satellite provide unique information about atmospheric state, surface and cloud properties. This paper represents an AIRS alone retrieval algorithm to simultaneously retrieve temperature, humidity and ozone profiles under all weather conditions, as well as cloud top pressure (CTP) and cloud optical thickness (COT) under cloudy skies. These products are retrieved on AIRS single field-of-view (SFOV) basis. For optically thick cloud conditions the above-cloud soundings are derived, whereas for clear skies and optically thin cloud conditions the profiles are retrieved from 0.005 hPa down to the earth’s surface. Initial validation has been conducted by using operational MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) product, ECMWF (European Center of Medium-range Weather Forecasts) analysis fields and radiosonde observations (RAOBs). These inter-comparisons clearly demonstrate the potential of this algorithm applicable to process the data of high-spectral infrared (IR) sounder instruments like IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer) and CrIS (Cross-track Infrared Sounder).
