Preliminary Demonstration of Thematic Climate Data Records from MSU/AMSU/ATMS

In the past two decades, progresses have been made in the utilization of satellite microwave data for climate monitoring. Through instrument calibration and inter-calibration using overlapping orbital data (Grody et al., 2004), the nine MSU's on board the early NOAA satellites (Tiros-N, NOAA-6 to-14) have provided a unique 26-year time series of the global tropospheric temperature as well as its trend (Vinnikov et al., 2006; Zou et al., 2009). In order to extend the temperature and trend analysis to longer time periods it is necessary to link AMSU data from NOAA 15-19 and METOP-A to the MSU time series . In this study, we will examine the impacts of improved AMSU-A calibration from NOAA and METOP-A satellites on atmospheric temperature, cloud liquid water and water vapor path retrievals. An analytic physical retrieval is used to derive the cloud liquid water and water vapor path from AMSU-A channels 1 and 2, and a one-dimension variational (1D-Var) approach is used for retrieving temperature profiles from AMSU-A and MSU. These retrievals will be integrated into a single thematic climate data record, from which climate trends of global warming at characteristic levels and within troposphere can be accurately deduced. The algorithms of cross-calibration and retrieval will be extended to the future ATMS on board NPP and JPSS satellites so that atmospheric temperature data record can be established at an even longer period.