Use of Radio Occultation to Evaluate Atmospheric Temperature Data from Spaceborne Infrared Sensors

Abstract

With its high accuracy, stability, and worldwide coverage GPS radio occultation offers an attractive means of independently validating and calibrating the world's premier weather and climate sensors. These include such instruments as AIRS, AMSU, and MODIS on NASA's EOS platforms, and similar systems on operational weather satellites. GPSRO also offers a valuable comparison standard for global weather analyses, such as those produced by NOAA's National Center for Environmental Predictions (NCEP) and the European Centre for Medium-RangeWeather Forecasts (ECMWF).

Keywords

• AIRS
• GPS
• Comparisons
• Temperature profiles
• Temperature biases