The development of a comprehensive set of long-term, consistent and calibrated data and products that are valid across multiple missions and satellite sensors is fundamental to the study of global climate change. The continuation of long-term and consistent calibrated radiance products started with the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder(AIRS) (launched in 2002) to CRIS on NPP (to be launched no sooner than 2009) presents a special challenge because of the time element, and differences in the orbit and instrument design. The objective of this proposal is to extend the methods used for the evaluate the radiometric calibration of AIRS to IASI (Improved Atmospheric Sounder in the Infrared, to be launch on 17 July 2006). The use of IASI demonstrates the accuracy achievable for the transfer of trends between different instruments on different satellites and provides the bridge between AIRS and NPP. The proposal shows examples of techniques and trends from the AIRS data which can be extended via IASI to CRIS.
