Atmospherically Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI)
Instrument Categories: Radiometric, Atmospheric Profiling
General Overview
The atmospheric emitted radiance interferometer (AERI) measures the absolute infrared spectral radiance (watts per square meter per steradian per wavenumber) of the sky directly above the instrument. The spectral measurement range of the instrument is 3300 to 520 wavenumbers (cm-1) or 3-19.2 microns for the normal-range instruments and 3300 to 400 cm-1 or 3-25 microns for the extended-range polar instruments. Spectral resolution is 1.0 cm-1. Instrument field-of-view is 1.3 degrees. A calibrated sky radiance spectrum is produced every 8 minutes in normal mode and every minute in rapid sampling mode. The actual sample scan time is 20-30 sec in rapid sampling mode with periodic gaps when the instrument is looking at the blackbodies. Rapid sampling will become available in all AERIs. Rapid sampling time will eventually be reduced to data every 20 seconds. The AERI data can be used for 1) evaluating line-by-line radiative transport codes, 2) detecting/quantifying cloud effects on ground-based measurements of infrared spectral radiance (and hence is valuable for cloud property retrievals), and 3) calculating vertical atmospheric profiles of temperature and water vapor and the detection of trace gases.
Primary Measurements Taken
The following measurements are those considered scientifically relevant. Refer to the netCDF File Header Descriptions (Data Object Design Files) for the list of all available measurements, including those recorded for diagnostic or quality assurance purposes.
- Atmospheric moisture
- Atmospheric temperature
- Longwave spectral brightness temperature
- Longwave spectral radiance
Available Value-Added Products
This instrument is an input to the following value-added products, which provide improved measurements or derived quantities.
- aerich1nf1turn - AERI ch. 1 radiance data, with uncorrelated random error (noise) filtered out
- aerich2nf1turn - AERI ch. 2 radiance data, with uncorrelated random error (noise) filtered out
- aerilblclouds - AERI: Line-by-Line comparison model, clouds
- aerilbldiff - AERI: LBLRTM spectral residuals
- aerilbldiffls - AERI: LBLRTM spectral residuals, w/ scaled (lssonde) sonde input
- aerilbldiffss - AERI: LBLRTM spectral residuals, w/ scaled (lbsonde) sonde input
- aeriprof - AERI: profiles of temperature and mixing ratio
- aeriprof3feltz - Profiles of temperature and water vapor physically retrieved from the AERI spectra
- gaeriprof - AERI: temperature and mixing ratio profiles, AERI & GOES spectra
- qmeaerilbl - QME: derived AERI vs. LBRTM-resid. stats as f of bin, process, channel
- qmeaerilblls - QME: derived AERI vs. LBLRTM-resid. stats w/scaled (lssonde) sonde input
- qmeaerilblss - QME: derived AERI vs. LBLRTM-resid. stats w/scaled (lblsonde) sonde input
- qmeaerimeans - QME: derived AERI vs. LBLRTM-radiance stats as f of bin, proc. & channel
- qmeaerimeansss - QME: derived AERI vs. LBLRTM-rad. stats w/scaled (lblsonde) sonde input
- qmeaeriprof - QME: derived AERI, tower, sonde profiles of temp & water vapor
- qmelwflux - QME: longwave Flux, between AERI, LBLRTM, RRTM, and the pyrgeometer
Available Datastreams
- aeri01ch1 - Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) 01: ch. 1 data
- aeri01ch2 - Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) 01: ch. 2 data
- aeri01engineer - Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) 01: engineering data
- aeri01summary - Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) 01: summary data
- aerich1 - Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI): channel 1 data
- aerich2 - Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI): channel 2 data
- aeriengineer - Atmospherically Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI): engineering data
- aerisummary - Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI): summary data
Sites / Facilities
Note: Click the "
" to expand/collapse the list.
- North Slope Alaska (NSA)
- Central Facility, Barrow AK (C1)
- Southern Great Plains (SGP)
- Central Facility, Lamont, OK (C1)
- Hillsboro, KS (Boundary) (B1)
- Lamont, OK (Extended, secondary) (E14)
- Morris, OK (Boundary) (B5)
- Purcell, OK (B6)
- Vici, OK (Boundary) (B4)
- SHEBA (Surface HEat Budget of the Arctic) (SHB)
- Ice Station SHEBA (C1)
- Tropical Western Pacific (TWP)
- Central Facility, Darwin, North Australia (C3)
- Central Facility, Nauru Island (C2)
- ARM Mobile Facility (FKB)
- Black Forest, Germany (M1)
- ARM Mobile Facility (NIM)
- Niamey, Niger (M1)
- ARM Mobile Facility (PYE)
- Point Reyes, CA (M1)
Mentor(s)
David Turner
(608)-263-1061
dturner@ssec.wisc.edu
Denny Hackel
associate
(608) 770-1485
dennyh@ssec.wisc.edu
Ralph Dedecker
engineering
(608) 263-6779
ralphd@ssec.wisc.edu
