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Full catalog/AIRIBQAP
AIRIBQAP·v005·dataset

Quality-check data for AIRS infrared measurements (Aqua)

AIRS/Aqua L1B Infrared (IR) quality assurance subset V005 (AIRIBQAP) at GES DISC
land NASA GES_DISC Level 1B active
In plain English

What it measures. Quality-control information for the AIRS infrared measurements, including flags that indicate how reliable each channel, scan, and field of view is, plus checks for sun-glint contamination.

How it's made. Produced alongside the AIRS Level 1B infrared data from the Aqua satellite as a companion quality-assurance file.

How & where you'd use it. A helper dataset that researchers consult to screen and filter the AIRS infrared data before using it, rather than a standalone measurement product.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › INFRARED WAVELENGTHS › INFRARED RADIANCE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2002-08-30 → ongoing
  • Measured byAqua (AIRS)
  • Processing levelLevel 1B
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official 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 IR Level 1B QA Subset contains Quality Assurance (QA) parameters that a user of may use to filter AIRS IR Level 1B radiance data to create a subset of analysis. QA parameters indicate quality of granule-per-channel, scan-per-channel, field of view, and channel and should be accessed before any data of analysis. It also contains "glintlat", "glintlon", and "sun_glint_distant" that users can use to check for possibility of solar glint contamination.

Get the data

airibqap_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="AIRIBQAP",
    version="005",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from GES_DISC
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.