Spectrometer Temperature (K)

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is a space based instrument developed for measurement of global atmospheric properties; primarily water vapor and temperature. AIRS is one of several instruments on board NASA's Earth Observing System Aqua spacecraft. AIRS operates in the 3.7- 15.4 micron region and has 2378 infrared channels. AIRS spatial resolution is 13.5 km from the orbit of 705 km and it scans +-49.5 degrees. AIRS has a set of on-board calibrators including a single infiared blackbody source, a parylene spectral calibration source, a space view and a Vis/NIR photometric calibrator. The on-board calibration subsystems are described along with a description of special test procedures for using them and results from several tests performed to date. Results are exceptional indicating that the instrument is performing better than expected