TES/Aura L2 Supplemental Profiles V007

TL2SUP_7 is the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES)/Aura Level 2 Supplemental Profiles Version 7 data product. TES was an instrument aboard NASA's Aura satellite and was launched from California on July 15, 2004. Data collection for TES is complete. The satellite flew at an altitude of 705 km in an orbit that took it near Earth's North and South Poles. After each orbit, the spacecraft advanced 22° westward. After 233 orbits (16 days) it was then back to its starting point. This product contains input data to the TES radiance forward model. These were profiles generated from climatology databases to be used in the forward model calculation but are not retrieved parameters. The process, referred to as retrieval, compared observed spectra to the modeled spectra and iteratively updates the atmospheric parameters.

Level 2 data contains retrieved species (or temperature) profiles at the observation targets and the estimated errors. The geolocation, quality, and other data (e.g., surface characteristics for nadir observations) were also provided. L2 modeled spectra were evaluated using radiative transfer modeling algorithms. The process, referred to as retrieval, compared observed spectra to the modeled spectra and iteratively updated the atmospheric parameters. L2 modeled spectra were evaluated using radiative transfer modeling algorithms. The process, referred to as retrieval, compared observed spectra to the modeled spectra and iteratively updated the atmospheric parameters. L2 standard product files included information for one molecular species (or temperature) for an entire global survey or special observation run. A global survey consisted of a maximum of 16 consecutive orbits, over which 3,200 retrievals were performed.