AIRS/Aqua L1B Near Real Time (NRT) Visible/Near Infrared (VIS/NIR) quality assurance subset V005 (AIRVBQAP_NRT)

The AIRS Level 1B Near Real Time (NRT) product (AIRVBQAP_NRT_005) differs from the routine product (AIRVBQAP_005) in 2 ways to meet the three hour latency requirements of the Land Atmosphere NRT Capability Earth Observing System (LANCE): (1) The NRT granules are produced without previous or subsequent granules if those granules are not available within 5 minutes, (2) the predictive ephemeris/attitude data are used rather than the definitive ephemeris/attitude.

The consequences of these differences are described in the AIRS Near Real Time (NRT) data products document. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) Visible/Near Infrared (VIS/NIR) instrument in combination with the AIRS Infrared Spectrometer, the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) and the Humidity Sounder for Brazil (HSB) constitute an innovative atmospheric sounding group aboard the Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua platform in a near-polar Sun-synchronous orbit with a 1:30 AM/PM equator crossing time and an ~705 km altitude.