PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far InfraRed Experiment) Spectral Radiance from PREFIRE Satellite 1 (PREFIRE_SAT1_1B-RAD) contains calibrated and geolocated radiance data derived from data collected by the PREFIRE Thermal Infrared Spectrometer (TIRS-PREFIRE) aboard PREFIRE-SAT1. Duel CubeSats each carry a TIRS-PREFIRE, a push broom spectrometer with 63 channels measuring mid- and far-infrared (FIR) radiation from approximately 5 to 53 µm. Most polar emissions are in the FIR but have not been measured on a large scale. PREFIRE aims to fill knowledge gaps in the global energy budget by more accurately characterizing polar emissions. This information will then be assimilated into global circulation and other climate models to predict future climates more accurately.

PREFIRE_SAT1_1B-RAD data is processed by geolocating the calibrated radiance data in PREFIRE_SAT1_1A-RAD using the pointing and position telemeters in PREFIRE_SAT1_0-BUS-TLM and a Digital Elevation Map.

The PREFIRE_SAT1_1A-RAD data is used to analyze the radiative budget in polar regions and produce 2 products: top-of-atmosphere spectral flux, surface spectral emissivity, and atmospheric properties such as cloud cover, temperature profiles, and water vapor profiles.

Data retrieval started in May TBD, 2024, and is ongoing. Geographic coverage is global, with the greatest concentration of data in the polar regions. The data swath is TBD km wide with 8 discrete TBD km wide data tracks corresponding to the 8 TIRS sensors. Individual data footprints are TBD km long by TBD km wide. This data has a temporal resolution of 0.707 seconds and is available in netCDF-4.

Calibrated and geolocated radiance data for the sister instrument aboard PREFIRE-SAT2 can be found in the PREFIRE_SAT2_1B-RAD collection.