Atmospheric infrared sounder

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The atmospheric infrared sounder (AIRS) is one of six instruments flying on board NASA's Aqua satellite, launched on May 4, 2002. The instrument is designed to support climate research and improve weather forecasting.^[1]

Working in combination with its partner microwave instrument, the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU-A), AIRS observes the global water and energy cycles, climate variation and trends, and the response of the climate system to increased greenhouse gases. AIRS uses infrared technology to create three-dimensional maps of air and surface temperature, water vapor, and cloud properties. AIRS can also measure trace greenhouse gases such as ozone, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane.

AIRS and AMSU-A share the Aqua satellite with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES), and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E). Aqua is part of NASA's "A-train," a series of high-inclination, Sun-synchronous satellites in low Earth orbit designed to make long-term global observations of the land surface, biosphere, solid Earth, atmosphere, and ocean.^[2]

AIRS data are free and available to the public through the Goddard Earth Sciences Data Information and Services Center.^[3] NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages AIRS for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.