On the effect of dust aerosols on AIRS and IASI operational level 2 products

Abstract

Satellite retrievals of environmental parameters can enable a global scale understanding of various atmospheric phenomena. Validation of these retrievals using in situ and other correlative measurements is critical to the success of our accurate interpretation of such phenomena. In this paper, we analyze the effect of dust on AIRS and IASI operational level 2 profiles using data obtained from the 2009-2011 AEROSE campaigns. We find that the presence of dust in the AIRS and IASI measurements biases the cloud-cleared radiances by as much as 4K. In addition, we find that the temperature and surface temperature retrievals resultant from these cloud-cleared radiances show 2 to 3K spurious oscillations throughout the troposphere. Copyright © 2012 by the American Geophysical Union.