Introduction to special section on Aura Validation

摘要

Aura, the last of the large EOS observatories, was launched on 15 July 2004 and has now been operating for several years. Aura is designed to make comprehensive stratospheric, mesospheric, and tropospheric constituent measurements from its four instruments HIRDLS, MLS, OMI, and TES. All of the instruments are performing well and observations of stratospheric and tropospheric trace gases and aerosols are revolutionizing our understanding of stratospheric chemistry and transport processes, ozone depletion, air quality, and the hydrological cycle. In this special section, the instrument teams and collaborators report on the validation of the released Aura data products.