NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
AIRS Observations of DomeC in Antarctica and Comparison with Automated Weather Stations (AWS)We compare the surface temperatures at Dome Concordia (DomeC) deduced from AIRS data and two Automatic Weather Stations at Concordia Station: AWS8989 , which has been in operation since December 1996, and AWS.it, for which data are available between January and November 2005. The AWS8989 readings are on average 3 K warmer than the AWS.it readings, with a warmer bias in the Antarctic summer than in the winter season. Although AIRS measures the skin brightness temperature, while the AWS reports the temperature of the air at 3 meter above the surface, the AIRS measurements agree well with the AWS.it readings for all data and separately for the summer and winter seasons, if data taken in the presence of strong surface inversions are filtered out. This can be done by deducing the vertical temperature gradient above the surface directly from the AIRS temperature sounding channels or indirectly by noting that extreme vertical gradients near the surface are unlikely if the wind speed is more than a few meters per second. Since the AIRS measurements are very well calibrated, the agreement with AWS.it is very encouraging. The warmer readings of AWS8989 are likely due to thermal contamination of the AWS8989 site by the increasing activity at Concordia Station. Data from an AWS.it quality station could be used for the evaluation of radiometric accuracy and stability of polar orbiting sounders at low temperatures. Unfortunately, data from AWS.it was available only for a limited time. The thermal contamination of the AWS8989 data makes long-term trends deduced from AWS8989 and possibly results about the rapid Antarctic warming deduced from other research stations on Antarctica suspect. AIRS is the first hyperspectral infrared sounder designed in support of weather forecasting and climate research. It was launched in May 2002 on the EOS Aqua spacecraft into a 704 km altitude polar sun-synchronous orbit. The lifetime of AIRS, estimated before launch to be at least 5 years is, based on the latest evaluation, limited by the amount of attitude control gas on the EOS Aqua spacecraft, which is expected to last through 2015.
Document ID
20070032829
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
External Source(s)
Authors
Aumann, Hartmut H.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Gregorich, Dave
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Broberg, Steve
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 23, 2013
Publication Date
October 5, 2006
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Meeting Information
Meeting: ITOVS (ITWG) 2006 Annual Meeting
Location: Maratea
Country: Italy
Start Date: October 3, 2006
End Date: October 10, 2006
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
atmospheric
infrared
sounding
climates

Available Downloads

There are no available downloads for this record.
No Preview Available