[1] This paper documents the climatological mean features of the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) monthly mean tropospheric air temperature (ta, K) and specific humidity (hus, kg/kg) products as part of the Obs4MIPs project and compares them to those from NASA's Modern Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) for validation and 16 models from the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) for CMIP5 model evaluation. MERRA is warmer than AIRS in the free troposphere but colder in the boundary layer with differences typically less than 1 K. MERRA is also drier (~10%) than AIRS in the tropical boundary layer but wetter (~30%) in the tropical free troposphere and the extratropical troposphere. In particular, the large MERRA-AIRS specific humidity differences are mainly located in the deep convective cloudy regions indicating that the low sampling of AIRS in the cloudy regions may be the main reason for these differences. In comparison to AIRS and MERRA, the sixteen CMIP5 models can generally reproduce the climatological features of tropospheric air temperature and specific humidity well, but several noticeable biases exist. The models have a tropospheric cold bias (around 2 K), especially in the extratropical upper troposphere, and a double-ITCZ problem in the troposphere from 1000 hPa to 300 hPa, especially in the tropical Pacific. The upper-tropospheric cold bias exists in the most (13 of 16) models, and the double-ITCZ bias is found in all 16 CMIP5 models. Both biases are independent of the reference dataset used (AIRS or MERRA).

Spatially and spectrally resolved models were used to explore the observational sensitivity to changes in atmospheric and surface properties and the detectability of surface biosignatures in the globally averaged spectra and light-curves of the Earth. Compared with previous efforts to characterize the Earth using disk-averaged models, a more comprehensive and realistic treatment of the surface and atmosphere was taken into account here. Our results are presented as a function of viewing geometry and phases at both visible/near-infrared (0.5-1.7 microm) and mid-infrared (5-25 microm) wavelength ranges, applicable to the proposed NASA-Terrestrial Planet Finder visible coronagraph and mid-infrared interferometer and to the ESADarwin mission architectures. Clouds can change the thermal emission by as much as 50% compared with the cloud-free case and increase the visible albedo by up to 500% for completely overcast cases at the dichotomy phase. Depending on the observed phase and their distribution and type, clouds can also significantly alter the spectral shape. Moreover, clouds impact the detectability of surface biosignatures in the visible wavelength range. Modeling the disk-averaged sensitivity to the "red-edge," a distinctive spectral signature of vegetation, showed that Earth's land vegetation could be seen in disk-averaged spectra, even with cloud cover, when the signal was averaged over the daily time scale. We found that vegetation is more readily discriminated from clouds at dichotomy (50% illumination) rather than at full phase. The detectability of phytoplankton was also explored, but was found to be more difficult to detect in the disk-average than land vegetation.

Knowledge of cloud properties like cloud top height (CTH) is essential to understand their impact on the earth's radiation budget and on climate change. High spectral resolution measurements from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) are well suited to reveal valuable information about cloud altitude. The CTH retrievals derived from AIRS single field‐of‐view (FOV) radiance measurements are compared with the operational MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) cloud product, and Level 2 products obtained from radar and lidar instruments onboard the EOS (Earth Observing System) CloudSat and the CALIPSO (Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation) satellites. Two cases containing a variety of cloud conditions have been studied, and the strengths/shortcomings of CTH products from infrared (IR) sounder radiances are discussed.

Abstract. The version 6 cloud products of the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) instrument suite are described. The cloud top temperature, pressure, and height and effective cloud fraction are now reported at the AIRS field-of-view (FOV) resolution. Significant improvements in cloud height assignment over version 5 are shown with FOV-scale comparisons to cloud vertical structure observed by the CloudSat 94 GHz radar and the Cloud-Aerosol LIdar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP). Cloud thermodynamic phase (ice, liquid, and unknown phase), ice cloud effective diameter (D e ), and ice cloud optical thickness (τ ) are derived using an optimal estimation methodology for AIRS FOVs, and global distributions for 2007 are presented. The largest values of τ are found in the storm tracks and near convection in the tropics, while D e is largest on the equatorial side of the midlatitude storm tracks in both hemispheres, and lowest in tropical thin cirrus and the winter polar atmosphere. Over the Maritime Continent the diurnal variability of τ is significantly larger than for the total cloud fraction, ice cloud frequency, and D e , and is anchored to the island archipelago morphology. Important differences are described between northern and southern hemispheric midlatitude cyclones using storm center composites. The infrared-based cloud retrievals of AIRS provide unique, decadal-scale and global observations of clouds over portions of the diurnal and annual cycles, and capture variability within the mesoscale and synoptic scales at all latitudes.

[1] We compare matched retrievals of upper tropospheric water vapor (UTWV) mixing ratios from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument on the Aura satellite, and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on the Aqua satellite. Because each instrument's sampling is affected by tropical conditions, about half of mutually observed scenes in the tropics yield simultaneous successful retrievals from both systems. The fraction of mutually retrieved scenes drops to 30% at higher latitudes where clouds significantly inhibit AIRS sounding. Essentially all scenes observed by MLS in extratropical and polar regions yield successful retrievals. At 250 hPa in the tropics, measurements from the two instruments are highly correlated, the differences of their means ( D q ) are smaller than 10%, and the standard deviations of their differences (s q ) are 30% or less. At 300 hPa, MLS means are drier by 10-15%, and s q is 40-60%, indicating that responses of MLS and AIRS to UTWV perturbations are not one-to-one. Root mean square agreement is also poorer over the poles at 300 hPa and at 200 and 150 hPa at lower latitudes. In these regions, j D q j = 10% or more, and s q = 40-70%. Correlations between the two data sets are 0.7-0.9 at 300 and 250 hPa globally and at 200 hPa in the tropics. This high correlation indicates that s q of 50% or greater comes mainly from systematic differences in sensitivity of the two instruments, especially for small and large UTWV amounts; larger values of s q are generally not due to large random errors from either instrument. An AIRS low-end sensitivity threshold of 15-20 ppmv leads to poorer agreement under the driest conditions. Disagreement at 300 hPa likely comes from overestimation by MLS for the wettest conditions of >400 ppmv. While MLS is biased slightly dry overall at 300 hPa, it is biased wet in the wettest regions, particularly those associated with deep convection. These sensitivity differences explain nonunity slopes of linear fits to the two data sets. MLS everywhere has a greater dynamic range than AIRS, with larger maxima and smaller minima. Good agreement at 250 hPa suggests AIRS uncertainties of 25% up to the reported 250-200 hPa layer in the tropics and extratropics, consistent with previous comparisons with balloon-and aircraft-borne instruments. The agreement at 250 hPa also indicates that MLS is reliable from its reported 215-hPa level upward in altitude.

[1] We estimate the accuracy of cloud top altitude (Z) retrievals from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) observing suite (Z A ) on board the Earth Observing System Aqua platform. We compare Z A with coincident measurements of Z derived from the micropulse lidar and millimeter wave cloud radar at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program sites of Nauru and Manus islands (Z ARM ) and the inferred Z from vertically resolved Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) ice water content (IWC) retrievals. The mean difference in Z A minus Z ARM plus or minus one standard deviation ranges from À2.2 to 1.6 km ± 1.0 to 4.2 km for all cases of AIRS effective cloud fraction (f A ) > 0.15 at Manus Island using the cloud radar only. The range of mean values results from using different approaches to determine Z ARM , day/night differences, and the magnitude of f A ; the variation about the mean decreases for increasing values of f A . Analysis of Z ARM from the micropulse lidar at Nauru Island for cases restricted to 0.05 f A 0.15 indicates a statistically significant improvement in Z A À Z ARM over the cloud radar-derived values at Manus Island. In these cases the Z A À Z ARM difference is À1.1 to 2.1 km ± 3.0 to 4.5 km. These results imply that the operational Z A is quantitatively useful for constraining cirrus altitude despite the nominal 45 km horizontal resolution. Mean differences of cloud top pressure (P CLD ) inferred from coincident AIRS and MLS ice water content (IWC) retrievals depend upon the method of defining AIRS P CLD (as with the ARM comparisons) over the MLS spatial scale, the peak altitude and maximum value of MLS IWC, and f A . AIRS and MLS yield similar vertical frequency distributions when comparisons are limited to f A > 0.1 and IWC > 1.0 mg m À3 . Therefore the agreement depends upon the opacity of the cloud, with decreased agreement for optically tenuous clouds. Further, the mean difference and standard deviation of AIRS and MLS P CLD are highly dependent on the MLS tangent altitude. For MLS tangent altitudes greater than 146 hPa, the strength of the limb technique, the disagreement becomes statistically significant. This implies that AIRS and MLS ''agree'' in a statistical sense at lower tangent altitudes and ''disagree'' at higher tangent altitudes. These results provide important insights on upper tropospheric cloudiness as observed by nadir-viewing AIRS and limb-viewing MLS.

Air parcels with mixing ratios of high O3 and low H2O (HOLW) are common features in the tropical western Pacific (TWP) mid-troposphere (300–700 hPa). Here, using data collected during aircraft sampling of the TWP in winter 2014, we find strong, positive correlations of O3 with multiple biomass burning tracers in these HOLW structures. Ozone levels in these structures are about a factor of three larger than background. Models, satellite data and aircraft observations are used to show fires in tropical Africa and Southeast Asia are the dominant source of high O3 and that low H2O results from large-scale descent within the tropical troposphere. Previous explanations that attribute HOLW structures to transport from the stratosphere or mid-latitude troposphere are inconsistent with our observations. This study suggest a larger role for biomass burning in the radiative forcing of climate in the remote TWP than is commonly appreciated.

Abstract. The precision of the two-layer cloud height fields derived from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is explored and quantified for a five-day set of observations. Coincident profiles of vertical cloud structure by CloudSat, a 94 GHz profiling radar, and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO), are compared to AIRS for a wide range of cloud types. Bias and variability in cloud height differences are shown to have dependence on cloud type, height, and amount, as well as whether CloudSat or CALIPSO is used as the comparison standard. The CloudSat-AIRS biases and variability range from −4.3 to 0.5±1.2-3.6 km for all cloud types. Likewise, the CALIPSO-AIRS biases range from 0.6-3.0±1.2-3.6 km (−5.8 to −0.2±0.5-2.7 km) for clouds ≥7 km (<7 km). The upper layer of AIRS has the greatest sensitivity to Altocumulus, Altostratus, Cirrus, Cumulonimbus, and Nimbostratus, whereas the lower layer has the greatest sensitivity to Cumulus and Stratocumulus. Although the bias and variability generally decrease with increasing cloud amount, the ability of AIRS to constrain cloud occurrence, height, and amount is demonstrated across all cloud types for many geophysical conditions. In particular, skill is demonstrated for thin Correspondence to: B. H. Kahn (brian.h.kahn@jpl.nasa.gov) Cirrus, as well as some Cumulus and Stratocumulus, cloud types infrared sounders typically struggle to quantify. Furthermore, some improvements in the AIRS Version 5 operational retrieval algorithm are demonstrated. However, limitations in AIRS cloud retrievals are also revealed, including the existence of spurious Cirrus near the tropopause and low cloud layers within Cumulonimbus and Nimbostratus clouds. Likely causes of spurious clouds are identified and the potential for further improvement is discussed.