Aqua/AIRS L2 Near Real Time (NRT) Standard Physical Retrieval (AIRS-only) V7.0 at GES DISC

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) Level 2 Near Real Time (NRT) Standard Physical Retrieval (AIRS-only) product (AIRS2RET_NRT_7.0) differs from the routine product (AIRS2RET_7.0) 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 produced using AIRS IR only because the radiometric noise in several AMSU channels started to increase significantly (since June 2007). The AIRS Standard Retrieval Product consists of retrieved estimates of cloud and surface properties, plus profiles of retrieved temperature, water vapor, ozone, carbon monoxide and methane. Estimates of the errors associated with these quantities is also part of the Standard Product. The temperature profile vertical resolution is 28 levels total between 1100 mb and 0.1 mb, while moisture profile is reported at 14 atmospheric layers between 1100 mb and 50 mb. The horizontal resolution is 50 km.

An AIRS granule has been set as 6 minutes of data, 30 footprints cross track by 45 lines along track. There are 240 granules per day, with an orbit repeat cycle of approximately 16 day.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field	Value
Maintainer	Earthdata Forum
Last Updated	June 15, 2026, 17:39 (UTC)
Created	April 1, 2025, 14:23 (UTC)
accessLevel	public
bureauCode	{026:00}
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harvest_source_id	b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title	Science Discovery Engine
identifier	10.5067/RAEHAOH4VZM5
license	https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified	2026-06-08T22:15:59Z
programCode	{026:000}
publisher	NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/TISL/GESDISC
resource-type	Dataset
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temporal	2002-08-30/2026-06-08
theme	{"Earth Science"}