Enhancements to the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) ground test, data downlink and processing for Climate Monitoring including Trace Gas Retrievals

Together with ATMS, the CrIS sensor is a critical payload for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) and will first fly on the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) mission, the risk reduction flight for NPOESS. NPOESS is the next generation weather and climate monitoring system for the U.S. Department of Defense, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) being developed under contract by Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.

The paper describes changes to make CrIS Sensor Data Records (SDRs) useful for climate monitoring, including trace gas retrievals, such as CO2. Specifically, these are changes to ground calibration tests, changes to the SDR algorithm, and changes in the spacecraft interface to downlink all of the spectral channels the sensor produces. These changes could be a way to achieve the requirements of NASA's OCO mission, which was to monitor CO2, but was destroyed during launch.