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Description

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is a grating spectrometer (R = 1200) aboard the second Earth Observing System (EOS) polar-orbiting platform, EOS Aqua. In combination with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) and the Humidity Sounder for Brazil (HSB), AIRS constitutes an innovative atmospheric sounding group of visible, infrared, and microwave sensors. This product is similar to AIRX3ST8. However, it contains science retrievals that use the Humidity Sounder for Brazil (HSB). Because the HSB instrument lived only from September 2002 through January 2003 when it terminally failed, the data set covers these five months only. The AIRS Level 3 8-Day Gridded Retrieval Product contains standard retrieval means, standard deviations and input counts. Each file covers an 8-day period, or one-half of the Aqua orbit repeat cycle. The mean values are simply the arithmetic means of the daily products, weighted by the number of input counts for each day in that grid box. The geophysical parameters have been averaged and binned into 1 x 1 deg grid cells, from -180.0 to +180.0 deg longitude and from -90.0 to +90.0 deg latitude. For each grid map of 4-byte floating-point mean values there is a corresponding 4-byte floating-point map of standard deviation and a 2-byte integer grid map of counts. The counts map provides the user with the number of points per bin that were included in the mean and can be used to generate custom multi-day maps from the daily gridded products. The thermodynamic parameters are: Skin Temperature (land and sea surface), Air Temperature at the surface, Profiles of Air Temperature and Water Vapor, Tropopause Characteristics, Column Precipitable Water, Cloud Amount/Frequency, Cloud Height, Cloud Top Pressure, Cloud Top Temperature, Reflectance, Emissivity, Surface Pressure, Cloud Vertical Distribution. The trace gases parameters are: Total Amounts and Vertical Profiles of Carbon Monoxide, Methane, and Ozone. The actual names of the variables in the data files should be inferred from the Processing File Description document.

Product Summary

Platforms
Aqua
Instruments
AIRS
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Geographic Region
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
2002-09-01 to 2003-02-08
Data Partner
Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (formerly Goddard DAAC), Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory, Earth Sciences Division, Science and Exploration Directorate, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA (NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/TISL/GESDI
Concept ID
C1238517250-GES_DISC
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
20
Processing Level
3
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Tropopause ,
Surface Pressure ,
Air Temperature ,
Upper Air Temperature ,
Total Precipitable Water ,
Water Vapor ,
Cloud Height ,
Cloud Top Pressure ,
Cloud Top Temperature ,
Cloud Vertical Distribution ,
Emissivity ,
Sea Surface Temperature ,
Skin Temperature ,
Carbon Monoxide ,
Geopotential Height ,
Humidity ,
Water Vapor Profiles ,
Cloud Liquid Water/Ice ,
Outgoing Longwave Radiation ,
Methane ,
Atmospheric Ozone

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

AIRS Science Team, & Texeira, J. (2013). Aqua AIRS Level 3 Standard Multiday (8-day) Product using AIRS and AMSU with HSB V6 [Data set]. NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/AQUA/AIRS/DATA311 Date Accessed: 2025-12-13

Documents

Variables

Variables are a set of physical properties whose values determine the characteristics or behavior of something. For example, temperature and pressure are variables of the atmosphere. Parameters and variables can be used interchangeably. Variable level attributes provide individual information for each variable.

The Name in this table is the variable name. Fill value indicates missing or undefined data points in a variable. Valid range is the range of values the variable can store. Scale factor is used to increase or decrease the size of an object and can be used to correct for distortion. For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor
CH4_VMR_A CH4_VMR_A N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CH4_VMR_A_ct CH4_VMR_A_ct N/A int16 0 N/A N/A
CH4_VMR_A_err CH4_VMR_A_err N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CH4_VMR_A_max CH4_VMR_A_max N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CH4_VMR_A_min CH4_VMR_A_min N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CH4_VMR_A_sdev CH4_VMR_A_sdev N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CloudFrc_A CloudFrc_A N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CloudFrc_A_ct CloudFrc_A_ct N/A int16 0 N/A N/A
CloudFrc_A_err CloudFrc_A_err N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CloudFrc_A_max CloudFrc_A_max N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CloudFrc_A_min CloudFrc_A_min N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CloudFrc_A_sdev CloudFrc_A_sdev N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CloudTopPres_A CloudTopPres_A N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CloudTopPres_A_ct CloudTopPres_A_ct N/A int16 0 N/A N/A
CloudTopPres_A_err CloudTopPres_A_err N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CloudTopPres_A_max CloudTopPres_A_max N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CloudTopPres_A_min CloudTopPres_A_min N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CloudTopPres_A_sdev CloudTopPres_A_sdev N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CloudTopTemp_A CloudTopTemp_A N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CloudTopTemp_A_ct CloudTopTemp_A_ct N/A int16 0 N/A N/A
CloudTopTemp_A_err CloudTopTemp_A_err N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CloudTopTemp_A_max CloudTopTemp_A_max N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CloudTopTemp_A_min CloudTopTemp_A_min N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CloudTopTemp_A_sdev CloudTopTemp_A_sdev N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
ClrOLR_A ClrOLR_A N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
ClrOLR_A_ct ClrOLR_A_ct N/A int16 0 N/A N/A
ClrOLR_A_err ClrOLR_A_err N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
ClrOLR_A_max ClrOLR_A_max N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
ClrOLR_A_min ClrOLR_A_min N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
ClrOLR_A_sdev ClrOLR_A_sdev N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CoarseCloudFrc_A CoarseCloudFrc_A N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CoarseCloudFrc_A_ct CoarseCloudFrc_A_ct N/A int16 0 N/A N/A
CoarseCloudFrc_A_max CoarseCloudFrc_A_max N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CoarseCloudFrc_A_min CoarseCloudFrc_A_min N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CoarseCloudFrc_A_sdev CoarseCloudFrc_A_sdev N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CoarseCloudLayer CoarseCloudLayer hPa float32 N/A N/A N/A
CoarseCloudPres_A CoarseCloudPres_A N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CoarseCloudPres_A_ct CoarseCloudPres_A_ct N/A int16 0 N/A N/A
CoarseCloudPres_A_max CoarseCloudPres_A_max N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CoarseCloudPres_A_min CoarseCloudPres_A_min N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CoarseCloudPres_A_sdev CoarseCloudPres_A_sdev N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CoarseCloudTemp_A CoarseCloudTemp_A N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CoarseCloudTemp_A_ct CoarseCloudTemp_A_ct N/A int16 0 N/A N/A
CoarseCloudTemp_A_max CoarseCloudTemp_A_max N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CoarseCloudTemp_A_min CoarseCloudTemp_A_min N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CoarseCloudTemp_A_sdev CoarseCloudTemp_A_sdev N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CO_VMR_A CO_VMR_A N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CO_VMR_A_ct CO_VMR_A_ct N/A int16 0 N/A N/A
CO_VMR_A_err CO_VMR_A_err N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
CO_VMR_A_max CO_VMR_A_max N/A float32 -9999 N/A N/A
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