Ultraspectral infrared technology development on the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and future applications

摘要

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is an ultraspectral 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. 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, Ozone and Methane. AIRS will be used for weather forecasting and studies of global climate change. The technology developed on the AIRS project includes advanced grating spectrometer optics, long-wavelength cutoff HgCdTe infrared detectors and active cooling. A status of the AIRS data products is presented. Advancements in the last decade allow the AIRS measurement to be made with better than 1 km spatial resolution. The higher spatial resolution will improve regional forecasting and reduce computational noise in trace gas measurements.