AIRS

Atmospheric Infra-Red Sounder

Satellite

EOS-Aqua

Status

Operational – Utilised in the period 2002 to ~ 2009

Mission

Temperature/humidity sounding, ozone profile and total-column green-house gases

Instrument type

Grating spectrometer, 2378 channels, resolving power λ/Δλ = 1200, 4 supporting channels in VIS/NIR

Scanning technique

Cross-track: 90 samples scanned, swath 1650 km - Along-track: one 13.5-km line each 2.67 s

Coverage/cycle

Global coverage once/day

Resolution (s.s.p.)

13.5 km IFOV for the spectrometer; 2.3 km IFOV for VIS/NIR channels

Resources

Mass: 177 kg  -  Power: 220 W  -  Data rate: 1.27 Mbps

Spectral range (µm)

Spectral range (cm-1)

Spectral resolution

Accuracy (NEΔT or SNR)

3.74 - 4.61 µm

2170 - 2674 cm-1

~ 2.0 cm-1

0.14 K @ 280 K

6.20 - 8.22 µm

1216 - 1613 cm-1

~ 1.0 cm-1

0.20 K @ 280 K

8.80 - 15.4 µm

650 - 1136 cm-1

~ 0.5 cm-1

0.35 K @ 280 K

0.41-0.44 µm

not relevant

30 nm

> 100 @ 40 % albedo

0.58-0.68 µm

not relevant

100 nm

> 100 @ 40 % albedo

0.71-0.92 µm

not relevant

210 nm

> 100 @ 40 % albedo

0.49-0.94 µm

not relevant

N/A (broadband)

> 100 @ 40 % albedo