Toward a Merged Temperature and Water vapor Record from AIRS/AMSU and CrIMSS

Abstract:

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder / Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AIRS/AMSU) suite on Aqua and the Cross-track Infrared and Microwave Sounding Suite (CrIMSS) on Suomi-NPP provide multi-year records of retrieved atmospheric temperature and water vapor. Similar spectral coverage, similar orbits, and a three-year record for comparison help simplify the merging of retrieved products from AIRS/AMSU and CrIMSS. Challenges include different satellite altitudes, differences in spectral response, regular but infrequent space/time overlaps that will alias natural variability, different retrieval algorithm approaches, and varying states of algorithm development. We describe first efforts to create a merged temperature and water vapor record based on currently available products from both observing systems.