| Abstract |
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is a high spectral resolution IR spectrometer. AIRS, together with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) and the Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS), is designed to meet the operational weather prediction requirements of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the global change research objectives of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The three instruments will be launched in the year 2000 on the EOS-PM spacecraft. Testing of the AIRS engineering model will start in 1996.
An extensive effort of data simulation and retrieval algorithm development has been used to define the AIRS instrument functional requirements and to demonstrate that the combined AIRS/AMSU/MHS data meet the temperature retrieval accuracy of 1K rms in 1km thick layers and water vapor profiles with 20% rms accuracy in 2 km layers in the troposphere under all-weather day, night and cloudy conditions. Assimilation of data with this accuracy into Global Circulation Models is required to achieve a positive forecast impact.
The AIRS Instrument is being designed and built at LORAL Infrared and Imaging Systems, Lexington MA, under a systems contract with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, operates under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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