First Suomi NPP Cal/Val Campaign: Intercomparison of Satellite and Aircraft Sounding Retrievals

Satellite ultraspectral infrared sensors provide key data records essential for weather forecasting and climate change science. The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite environmental data records (EDRs) are retrieved from calibrated ultraspectral radiance or sensor data records (SDRs). Understanding the accuracy of retrieved EDRs is critical. The first Suomi NPP Calibration/Validation Campaign was conducted during May 2013. The NASA high-altitude ER-2 aircraft carrying ultraspectral interferometer sounders such as the National Airborne Sounder Testbed-Interferometer (NAST-I) flew under the Suomi NPP satellite that carries the cross-track infrared sounder (CrIS) and the advanced technology microwave sounder (ATMS). Here, we intercompare the EDRs produced with different retrieval algorithms from SDRs measured from satellite and aircraft. The available dropsonde and radiosonde measurements together with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) analysis are used to assess the results of this experiment. This study indicates that the CrIS/ATMS retrieval accuracy meets the Suomi NPP EDR requirement, except in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) where we have less confidence in meeting the requirement due to retrieval null-space error.