Atmospheric temperature is an important input to numerical weather prediction (NWP) models used to provide daily global weather forecasts. Traditionally the temperature profile used in NWP data assimilation has come from the global WMO network of radiosonde launch sites. The distribution of these sites is biased toward land areas and concentrated mainly in developed countries like the continental United States and Europe. Since the 1970's the use of satellites to provide temperature information on the atmosphere has taken on increasing importance. Microwave sounders in particular have been successfully integrated into operational weather forecast data assimilation system. The infrared sensors on the NOAA series of satellites, ATOVS, have also been assimilated with an emphasis on observed channels that peak high above the surface and clouds. This paper presents a methodology for validating the measurements from the advanced high-spectral resolution infrared Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) on the NPP satellite, the first satellite of the newly created U.S. JPSS program. In particular, the temperature profiles from the Cross-Track Infrared Microwave Sounding Suite (CrIMSS) will be compared against special launches of Vaisala radiosondes at three climate sites operated by the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program. The validation of air temperature vertical profiles, a key NPP Environmental Data Record (EDR), against research grade radiosondes will follow a previously published method developed for validation of the NASA AIRS L2 products. This paper will describe an additional methodology for validation that makes use of temperature profiles obtained from radio occultation between GPS satellites and satellite-based receivers. In particular, experience of performing matchups between GPS temperature profiles from the COSMIC project and NASA AIRS L2 version 5 products will be presented as a proxy for the same comparison expected with CrIMSS EDRs. The unique issues of time and space matchups between the GPS occultation profiles (pseudo-random in space and time) with satellite and ground sites will be described and a preliminary assessment of product accuracies presented.