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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. The AIRS Only Level 3 Monthly Gridded Retrieval Product contains standard retrieval means, standard deviations and input counts. Each file covers a calendar month. 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.
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
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.
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AIRS Science Team, & Texeira, J. (2013). Aqua AIRS Level 3 Standard Monthly Product using AIRS IR-only V6 [Dataset]. NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/AQUA/AIRS/DATA321 Date Accessed: 2026-08-01
AIRS Science Team, & Texeira, J. (2013). Aqua AIRS Level 3 Standard Monthly Product using AIRS IR-only V6 [Dataset]. NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/AQUA/AIRS/DATA321 Date Accessed: 2026-08-01
AIRS Science Team, and Joao Texeira. “Aqua AIRS Level 3 Standard Monthly Product Using AIRS IR-Only V6.” NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center, 2013, https://doi.org/10.5067/AQUA/AIRS/DATA321. Date Accessed: 2026-08-01
Chen, Shuli, Stark, Scott C., Nobre, Antonio Donato, Cuartas, Luz Adriana, de Jesus Amore, Diogo, Restrepo-Coupe, Natalia, Smith, Marielle N., Chitra-Tarak, Rutuja, Ko, Hongseok, Nelson, Bruce W., Saleska, Scott R.
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, Atmospheric Radiation, Longwave Radiation, Shortwave Radiation, Radiative Flux, Radiative Forcing, Surface Radiative Properties, Albedo, Cloud Properties, Cloud Fraction, Cloud Optical Depth/Thickness, Skin Temperature, Sea Surface Skin Temperature
The table below lists the variables contained within a single granule for this
dataset. Variables often contain observed or derived geophysical measurements
collected from a variety of sources, including remote sensing instruments on
satellite and airborne platforms, field campaigns, in situ measurements, and
model outputs. The terms variable, parameter, scientific data set, layer, and band
have been used across NASA’s Earth science disciplines; however, variable is the
designated nomenclature in NASA’s Common Metadata Repository (CMR).
Variable metadata attributes such as Name, Description, Units, Data Type, Fill
Value, Valid Range, and Scale Factor allow users to efficiently process and analyze
the data. The full range of attributes may not be applicable to all variables.
Additional information on variable attributes is typically available in the data,
user guide, and/or other product documentation.
For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.