Formulation and validation of simulated data for the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)

Models for synthesizing radiance measurements by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) are described. Synthetic radiances have been generated for developing and testing data processing algorithms. The radiances are calculated from geophysical states derived from weather forecasts and climatology using the AIRS rapid transmission algorithm. The data contain horizontal variability at the spatial resolution of AIRS from the surface and cloud fields. This is needed to test retrieval algorithms under partially cloudy conditions. The surface variability is added using vegetation and International Geosphere Biosphere Programme surface type maps, while cloud variability is added randomly. The radiances are spectrally averaged to create High Resolution Infrared Sounder (HIRS) data, and this is compared with actual HIRS2 data on the NOAA 14 satellite. The simulated data under-represent high-altitude equatorial cirrus clouds and have too much local variability. They agree in the mean to within 1-4 K, and global standard deviation agrees to better than 2 K. Simulated data have been a valuable tool for developing retrieval algorithms and studying error characteristics and will continue to be so after launch.