Aqua/AIRS L2 Standard Physical Retrieval (AIRS-only) V7.0

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 similar to AIRX2RET. It produced using AIRS IR only because the radiometric noise in several AMSU channels began 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 for AMSU, and 13.5 for an IR footprint. 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	September 15, 2026, 05:36 (UTC)
Created	April 1, 2025, 14:23 (UTC)
accessLevel	public
bureauCode	{026:00}
catalog_conformsTo	https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id	bc05328f-04f7-413c-bf75-2063c5624802
harvest_source_id	b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title	Science Discovery Engine
identifier	10.5067/VP1M6OG1X7M1
license	https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified	2026-09-07T22:16:04Z
programCode	{026:000}
publisher	NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/TISL/GESDISC
resource-type	Dataset
source_datajson_identifier	true
source_hash	f923b2519b4c72fa605ef3801c8a6982ca046d1aae39ebceb06a525f7c392124
source_schema_version	1.1
spatial	["CARTESIAN", [{"WestBoundingCoordinate": -180, "NorthBoundingCoordinate": 90, "EastBoundingCoordinate": 180, "SouthBoundingCoordinate": -90}]]
temporal	2002-08-30/2026-09-07
theme	{"Earth Science"}