Developing Synergies with Space-based Infrared Sounders to Improve Thermodynamic Sounding of the Planetary Boundary Layer

The vertical grid choice can impact the information content of sounding from passive instruments. This study explores the effects of different grid types on infrared sounding from ground-based (atmospheric emitted radiance interferometer, AERI) and space-based (Cross-track Infrared Sounder, CrIS) platforms. Information content from CrIS is not significantly impacted by the grid type, except in the situation where a vertical grid is very coarse (greater than 700 m in spacing). Contrastingly, ground-based temperature sounding is very sensitive to the vertical grid choice, with maximum information content being attained in a grid that has very small vertical spacing near the surface. As a result, the synergy of ground- and space-based sensors together is also sensitive to the grid choice, with the vertical grids that maximize the ground-based information content proving to maximize the information in the instrument synergy as well. Future work will assess the vertical resolution.