AIRS

Frequently Asked Questions


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Q.  Has there been any correlation carried out for volcanic activity and
CO2 emissions during the course of the AIRS instrument operation?  

A.  No correlation studies have been carried out. We have a simple flag
in our L1B radiance product that is triggered by brightness
temperature differences among channels containing SO2 features.

The NOAA feed automatically transmits these to warn commercial
airlines of possible ash clouds. The NOAA web site that displays
granule images for these triggers is located at the URL:

http://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/smcd/spb/airs/so2.html

And one researcher is using AIRS data to retrieve SO2 amount. Here is
a recently published paper:

Estimation of the vertical profile of sulfur dioxide injection into
the atmosphere by a volcani eruption using satelite column
measurements and inverse transport modeling, Eckhardt, S., Prata,
A.J., Seibert, P., Steel, K., Stohl., A., Atmopsheric Chemistry &
Physics, 208, 8, 14, 3881-3897

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