Development of Level 3 (gridded) products for the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) sounding system is a suite of infrared and microwave instruments flown as part of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) onboard the Aqua platform. The AIRS dataset provides a daily, global view of Earth processes at a finer vertical resolution than ever before. However, analysis of the AIRS data is a daunting task given the sheer volume and complexity of the data. The volume of data produced by the EOS project is unprecedented; the AIRS project alone will produce many terabytes of data over the lifetime of the mission. This paper describes development of AIRS Level 3 data products that will help to alleviate problems of access and usability.