Performance status of the AIRS instrument thirteen years after launch

Denis A. Elliott; Thomas S. Pagano; Hartmut H. Aumann; Steven E. Broberg

doi:10.1117/12.2186608

1 September 2015 Performance status of the AIRS instrument thirteen years after launch

Denis A. Elliott, Thomas S. Pagano, Hartmut H. Aumann, Steven E. Broberg

Proceedings Volume 9611, Imaging Spectrometry XX; 961109 (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2186608
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2015, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is a hyperspectral infrared instrument on the EOS Aqua Spacecraft, launched on May 4, 2002. AIRS has 2378 infrared channels ranging from 3.7 μm to 15.4 μm and a 13.5 km footprint at nadir. AIRS is a “facility” instrument developed by NASA as an experimental demonstration of advanced technology for remote sensing and the benefits of high resolution infrared spectra to science investigations. AIRS, in conjunction with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), produces temperature profiles with 1K/km accuracy on a global scale, as well as water vapor profiles and trace gas amounts for CO₂ , CO, SO₂ , O₃ and CH₄. AIRS data are used for weather forecasting, climate process studies and validating climate models. The AIRS instrument has far exceeded its required design life of 5 years, with nearly 13 years of routine science operations that began on August 31, 2002. While the instrument has performed exceptionally well, with little sign of wear, the AIRS Project continues to monitor and maintain the health of AIRS, characterize its behavior and improve performance where possible. Radiometric stability has been monitored and trending shows better than 16 mK/year stability. Spectral calibration stability is better than 1 ppm/year. At this time we expect the AIRS to continue to perform well into the next decade. This paper contains updates to previous instrument status reports, with emphasis on the last three years.

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Denis A. Elliott, Thomas S. Pagano, Hartmut H. Aumann, and Steven E. Broberg "Performance status of the AIRS instrument thirteen years after launch", Proc. SPIE 9611, Imaging Spectrometry XX, 961109 (1 September 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2186608

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KEYWORDS

Sensors

Lamps

Infrared radiation

Space operations

Calibration

Climatology

Clouds

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