ESSIC/CISESS Scientists Bin Zhang, Xi Shao and Tung-Chang Liu and NOAA scientist Changyong Cao (STAR/SMCD/SCDAB) authored a paper “Spectral Recalibration of NOAA HIRS Longwave CO2 Channels toward a 40+ Year Time Series for Climate Studies”, which has been accepted for publication in the MDPI journal Atmosphere.
This study looked at 40 years of High-Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS) observations on NOAA and MetOp A/B satellites for long wave CO2 channels (channel 1,2,3 and 8) and recalibrated the Spectral Response Function (SRF) towards constructing a continuous time series of HIRS observation across different satellites. The HIRS on NOAA and MetOp A/B satellites has been observing the Earth continuously for over four decades. Although the HIRS data meets the needs of the short-term weather forecast, there are inconsistencies when the long-term decadal time series is used for time-series analysis. The discrepancies are caused by several factors, including spectral response differences between the HIRS models on the satellites and spectral response uncertainties and other calibration issues. In this study, the spectral shift of the HIRS bands helped improve the consistency in the time series from NOAA-06 to MetOp-A and B for these channels. The recalibration parameters have been provided to other scientists at the University of Wisconsin for improving the time series in their long-term studies using historical HIRS data and are now made available to the science community.
Zhang is an ESSIC/CISESS assistant research scientist. His research interests include ocean circulation dynamics and ocean state forecasting, satellite sensor calibration/validation.
Shao is an associate research scientist at ESSIC/CISESS and Department of Astronomy of University of Maryland. He supports radiometric calibration and validation work for Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20 Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument and METimage on EPS-SG.
Tung-Chang Liu is an assistant research scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland USA. His research interests include laser plasma interaction and laser proton accelerator design and applications, remote sensing imagery data analysis and correction, and modeling of calibration systems for imaging sensors.
To access the paper, click here: “Spectral Recalibration of NOAA HIRS Longwave CO2 Channels toward a 40+ Year Time Series for Climate Studies”.
