HIRDLS Validation Status

The HIRDLS instrument was launched on the NASA EOS Aura spacecraft on 15th July 2004. During initial operation it was discovered that part of the instrument field of view was partially obstructed. As a consequence, the atmospheric measurements produced are anomalous. The HIRDLS project team however, have developed new calibration schemes to convert the anomalous measurements to equivalent standard radiance measurements as would have been produced by a normally functioning instrument.

Validation studies on HIRDLS data are currently being carried out at a number of institutes including, in the UK,

• Department of Space Science and Technology, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL)
• Department of Physics in the sub-department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics (AOPP), University of Oxford

• University of Colorado at Boulder (UCB)
• National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

General information on validation activities for the Aura mission may be found at the Aura Validation Center web site including an overview of HIRDLS given at the AURA Science team meeting in the Hague, November 2005.

The Remote Sensing Group at RAL is validating level 1 data (calibrated and geolocated radiances) and level 2 data (geophysical atmospheric profiles) using sonde measurements and meteorological analyses. The work focuses on temperature, ozone and water vapour radiances and products and is on-going. A status report on this validation work can be viewed as a pdf document.

Documentation

• Status report by remote sensing group at RAL, October 2005
• Overview of HIRDLS given at the AURA Science team meeting in the Hague, November 2005.

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