Evaluation of AIRS Soundings at Regional Scales

High spectral radiance measurements from the AIRS on NASA's Aqua satellite are used to produced global profiles of temperature and moisture on an almost routine basis by the AIRS science team. The afternoon and early morning crossing times of the satellite does not provide AIRS data coincident in time with standard rawinsonde observations, however. To evaluate the quality of AIRS soundings for regional applications, temperature profiles are spatially and temporally collocated with ACARS data for selected regions over the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. Asynoptic rawinsonde data are also used for temperature and moisture comparisons over the region. Additionally, spatial analysis and comparison to model forecast fields are used in the evaluation. The results of this preliminary research will be presented at the conference.