Science

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, AIRS, brings climate research and weather prediction into the 21st century. From NASA's Aqua spacecraft, the AIRS instrument measures humidity, temperature, cloud properties, and the amounts of greenhouse gases. AIRS also reveals land and sea surface temperatures. AIRS will:

• improve weather forecasting
• establish the connection between severe weather and climate change
• determine if the global water cycle is accelerating
• detect the effects of greenhouse gases

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), together with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU-A) and the Humidity Sounder for Brazil (HSB) on the Aqua mission, represents the most advanced sounding system ever deployed in space. The system is capable of measuring the atmospheric temperature in the troposphere with radiosonde accuracies of 1 K over 1 km-thick layers under both clear and cloudy conditions, while the accuracy of the derived moisture profiles will exceed that obtained by radiosondes. Furthermore, the system will provide additional data on land and ocean surface temperature and surface emissivity, cloud fraction, and cloud top height, and ozone burden of the atmosphere. This makes AIRS/AMSU-A/HSB the primary observing system to study the global water and energy cycles, climate variation and trends, and the response of the climate system to increased greenhouse gases.