The Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), a high spectral resolution infrared sounding system, were launched aboard the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua satellite on May 4, 2002 into a nominal 1:30 pm equator-crossing time, sun-synchronous polar orbit.This suite of Aqua instruments, enable the global monitoring at unprecedented spatial and temporal scales of the atmosphere, the terrestrial ecosystems, and the oceans, and will provide long-term data sets for the various geophysical parameters needed for climate and global change process studies.

MODIS has a 2330 km viewing swath width and provides radiances in 36 spectral bands between 0.415 and 14.235 micron, with spatial resolutions of 250 m (2 bands), 500 m (5 bands), and 1000 m (29 bands). Improving upon heritage sensors, MODIS provides better sensitivity, finer spatial resolution, and new channels, yielding unprecedented volume of information on Earth's atmosphere, oceans and land surface. The 2378-channels AIRS, on the other hand, together with AMSU-A constitutes an innovative integrated cross-track scanning atmospheric sounding system of visible, infrared, and microwave sensors that measures temperature at an accuracy of 1^o K in layers 1 km thick, and humidity with an accuracy of 20% in layers 2 km thick in the troposphere.

The NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Distributed Active Archive Center (GES DISC DAAC), seen as "GSFC-ECS" in the Earth Observing System Data Gateway, currently archives, distributes and supports both MODIS and AIRS data. MODIS data products include: Level-1 Radiances and Geolocations, and all levels of Atmosphere and Sea Surface Temperature(SST) data. The AIRS/AMSU-A data products include Level-1B radiances and retrieved Level-2 atmospheric parameters such as temperature, humidity and ozone profiles.

In this poster we try to briefly examine the inherent synergy between an imager (MODIS) and a sounder (AIRS) operating from the same space-based platform and making near-concurrent global Earth observations. Our goals are: to understand the similarities and differences between comparable geophysical data products from the MODIS and AIRS instruments and guide Users through it; to explore the potential benefits of the combined use of MODIS and AIRS data products, as well as cross-instrument validation and ancillary data substitution. For both instruments, we look at how SST data from the ocean product group and atmospheric dust and cloud properties from the atmosphere product group, potentially complement each other.