The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is an advanced sounder containing 2378 infrared channels and four visible/near-infrared channels, aimed at obtaining highly accurate temperature profiles within the atmosphere plus a variety of additional Earth/atmosphere products. AIRS is the highlighted instrument in the AIRS/AMSU-A/HSB triplet centered on measuring accurate temperature and humidity profiles throughout the atmosphere.
Instrument Characteristics
- High-spectral resolution, grating multispectral infrared sounder operated in a cross-track-scanning mode with AMSU-A and HSB for all weather capabiity.
- Measure's the Earth's outgoing radiation at 0.4 to 1.0 µm and 3.7 to 15.4 µm.
- 1 K temperature retrieval accuracy per 1 km layer in the troposphere.
- 0.05 emissivity accuracy.
- Array grating spectrometer (3.74 to 15.4 µm), with a spectral resolution of 1200 (λ / Δλ)
| Instrument Facts | |
| Responsible Center: | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
| Heritage: | Advanced Moisture and Temperature Sounder (AMTS) Study, High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS) |
| Swath: | 1650 km |
| Spatial Resolution: | 13.5 km at horizontal at nadir, 1 km vertical |
| Mass: | 156 kg |
| Duty Cycle: | 100% |
| Data Rate: | 1.44 Mbps |
| Thermal Control By: | Redundant 60 K Stirling cycle coolers, heater, mini thermal bus, two-stage radiator |
| Thermal Operating Range: | 20-25°C |
| Field of View (FOV): | ±49.5° |
| Instrument Instantaneous FOV: | 1.1Å° circular |
| Pointing Requirements (platform+instrument, 3σ) | |
| Control: | 360 arcsec |
| Knowledge: | 180 arcsec |
| Stability: | 360/60 sec |
| Jitter: | TBD |
| Physical Size: | 139.7 x 77.5 x 76.2 cm (stowed), 139.7 x 151.2 x 76.2 cm (deployed) |