The Hyperspectral Environmental Suite (HES) simulation study using MM5 data

High spectral resolution infrared radiances from the Hyperspectral Environmental Suite (HES) on Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R and beyond) will have more than 1600 channels and allow for monitoring the evolution of atmospheric profiles and clouds. The HES will be launched in the 2013 era. A fast radiative transfer model accounting for molecular absorption, cloud absorption, and cloud scattering effects is used to simulate the Hyperspectral Environmental Suite (HES) radiances under both clear and cloudy skies. Mesoscale Model 5 (MM5) data from THe Observing system Research and Prediction EXperiment (THORPEX) were used for the simulation study. A statistical regression (Eigenvector regression) approach is used to retrieve the atmospheric temperature, moisture and trace gas profiles from simulated HES top of atmosphere (TOA) radiances under clear skies and some cloudy skies. Retrievals are then compared with the true profiles to evaluate the performance. Animations with 30-minute cube data have been created to demonstrate the advantage of the future HES over the current Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Sounder which has 18 low spectral resolution infrared channels.