1. Blue Sky group presentation
Spectra features
Francesca, Francesco, Igor,
Piotr, Raffaella

2. Italian: Ecco a voi la stupefacente, meravigliosa e sconvolgente presentazione del famoso gruppo “Cielo Azzurro”
German: Wunderbarer Blauhimmelgruppenvortrag
French: Maintenant on y va avec l`une des meilleures présentations du fameux grouppe “Ciel Bleu”
Hungarian: A „Kek Eg” csoport csodalatos eloadasa
Polish: Zaskakująca i zachwycająca prezentacja grupy “Błękitne Niebo”

3. ? ? ?

4. Snow
Cloud-day
Etna Plume
Clear Sky Ocean
Tunisia desert
AIRS

5. Investigated areas
desert
snow
cloud

6. AIRS Spectra from around the Globe
20-July-2002 Ascending LW_Window
This shows the ascending data (day-time) for the current AIRS “focus day” of 20 July The image is of a longwave window channel brightness temperature (using a GOES colormap), along with various sample spectra.
We’ve had global observations of high spectral resolution before (IRIS and IMG), but they were not really atmospheric profile sounders. The AIRS data is very clean, and the applications are numerous. This is what many of us have been waiting for, and working towards for many years. There are many un-tapped opportunities: SO2 detection from volcanoes, the blue-spike fire detection, new cloud detection techniques, low level inversion detection for severe weather, new spectroscopy investigations, climate change signatures, …

8. Day? Night? Desert? Ice/Snow?
Here the temperature is lower in the window than in the H2O band:
Signature of cold surface and dry atmosphere
Here the flatness indicates that it
could be either snow /ice, or night
Low BT points to snow/ice
Here two windows channel at
similar level exclude desert land
Low surface temp. 31 29 23
Very dry atmosphere

9. Polar ice, very low temperature
Polar coastline

11. Comparison with modis ice/snow pseudochannels
31-23: Snow surfaces have small negative difference of Tb
31-29: snow surfaces have same Tb

12. Our conclusion Probably ice/snow, clear, very cold,
hard to say day/night.
(Polar bear chattering with teeth)

13. be due to bare soil (desert): see picture
Land? Ocean?
This BT difference may
be due to bare soil (desert): see picture
Night or lack of clouds (water clouds)
Relatively low surface temperature 31 29 32

14. Tunisia desert - AIRS spectra
Daytime
No clouds

16. 11 m - 12 m 11m - 8.6 m 31-29 over desert (red surfaces)
Sea, land with vegetation (blue surfaces)
31-32: difference over desert is close to 0
Thin clouds (cirrus) brighter
11 m - 12 m
11m m

17. Our conclusion Probably night, desert, and presence of cirrus clouds.
(Muffled sounds of camel hoofs coming from a distance)

18. Daytime, due to the steep slope
from reflected sun radiation: this is very high, so it could be thick clouds, or clouds composed by small droplets (high reflectivity).
Presence of clouds: we see that it is ice clouds, because otherwise it would not be so steep 23 31 29 32

19. AIRS spectra over cloudy area
Sun reflection
Low temperature

20. 23-31
29-31
31-32
High cloud with
ice particles on the top
well presented
Broken clouds
and low water
clouds better detected
Thin clouds well detected
Thick high clouds not
detected

21. Our conclusion High cirrus over a low cloud at the daytime
Daytime, probably two layers of clouds, or broken clouds (where we have both ice and water droplet)
Final decision
High cirrus over a low cloud at the daytime

22. Clear sky over the sea - AIRS spectra
High temperature, similar in all windows

23. SO2 plume from Etna - AIRS spectra
Etna plume: Brightness Temperature Spectra
Characteristic slopes of window channels