Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/AIRS2SUP_NRT
AIRS2SUP_NRT·v006·dataset

Air temperature and moisture, near real-time (Aqua)

AIRS/Aqua L2 Near Real Time (NRT) Support Retrieval (AIRS-only) V006 (AIRS2SUP_NRT) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2 active
In plain English

What it measures. Near-real-time profiles of air temperature and moisture through the atmosphere, plus related surface and atmospheric quantities. This 'support' version carries extra higher-detail vertical profiles.

How it's made. Retrieved from the Aqua satellite's AIRS infrared sounder alone (without the microwave unit), with shortcuts taken to deliver results within about three hours.

How & where you'd use it. Supports weather forecasting and atmospheric monitoring where timeliness matters; the speed-related shortcuts mean it is slightly less refined than the routine product.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLSATMOSPHERE › AIR QUALITY › CARBON MONOXIDEATMOSPHERE › AIR QUALITY › TROPOSPHERIC OZONEATMOSPHERE › ALTITUDE › GEOPOTENTIAL HEIGHTATMOSPHERE › ALTITUDE › TROPOPAUSEATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRYATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › CARBON AND HYDROCARBON COMPOUNDS › METHANEATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › OXYGEN COMPOUNDS › ATMOSPHERIC OZONEATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › SULFUR COMPOUNDS › SULFUR DIOXIDEATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › TRACE GASES/TRACE SPECIESATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE › PLANETARY BOUNDARY LAYER HEIGHTATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE › SURFACE PRESSUREATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › LONGWAVE RADIATIONATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › OUTGOING LONGWAVE RADIATION

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2016-10-15 → ongoing
  • Measured byAqua (AIRS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) Level 2 Near Real Time (NRT) Support Retrieval (AIRS-only) product (AIRS2SUP_NRT_006) differs from the routine product (AIRS2SUP_006) in four ways to meet the three hour latency requirements of the Land Atmosphere NRT Capability Earth Observing System (LANCE): (1) The NRT granules are produced without previous or subsequent granules if those granules are not available within 5 minutes, (2) the predictive ephemeris/attitude data are used rather than the definitive ephemeris/attitude, (3) if the forecast surface pressure is unavailable, a surface climatology is used, and (4) no ice cloud properties retrievals are performed. The consequences of these differences are described in the AIRS Near Real Time (NRT) data products document. 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. This product is product produced using AIRS IR only because the radiometric noise in AMSU channel 4 started to increase significantly (since June 2007). The Support Product includes higher vertical resolution profiles of the quantities found in the Standard Product, plus intermediate outputs (e.g., microwave-only retrieval), research products such as the abundance of trace gases, and detailed quality assessment information. The Support Product profiles contain 100 levels between 1100 and .016 mb; this higher resolution simplifies the generation of radiances using forward models, though the vertical information content is no greater than that in the Standard Product profiles. The intended users of the Support Product are researchers interested in generating forward radiance or in examining research products, and the AIRS algorithm development team. The Support Product is generated at all locations as Standard Products. An AIRS granule has been set as 6 minutes of data, 30 footprints cross track by 45 scanlines. There are 240 granules per day, with an orbit repeat cycle of approximately 16 day.

Get the data

airs2sup_nrt_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="AIRS2SUP_NRT",
    version="006",
    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.