Aqua/AIRS L2 Support Retrieval (AIRS+AMSU) V7.0 at GES DISC

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is a grating spectrometer (R = 1200) aboard the second Earth Observing System (EOS) polar-orbiting platform, EOS Aqua. In combination with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), AIRS constitutes an innovative atmospheric sounding group of infrared and microwave sensors. The Support Product includes higher vertical resolution profiles of the quantities found in the Standard Product plus intermediate output (e.g., microwave-only retrieval), research products such as the abundance of trace gases, and detailed quality assessment information. The Support Product profiles contain 100 pressure levels between 1100 and .016 mb; this higher resolution simplifies the generation of radiances using forward models, though the vertical information content is no greater than in the Standard Product profiles. The horizontal resolution is 50 km. The intended users of the Support Product are researchers interested in generating forward radiance, or in examining research products, and the AIRS algorithm development team. The Support Product is generated at all locations as Standard Products.

An AIRS granule has been set as 6 minutes of data, 30 footprints cross track by 45 lines along track. There are 240 granules per day, with an orbit repeat cycle of approximately 16 day.