Accomplishments from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and the need for higher spatial resolution in the future

The wide range of products available from AIRS have made it invaluable as a tool for operational weather forecasting and climate modeling. AIRS has improved the 5 day forecast by 6 hours in the NCEP operational system and researchers have identified further improvement potential by assimilation of more channels and footprints. AIRS data have been used to validate the distribution and transport of water vapor and greenhouse gases in climate models, resulting in the identification of significant errors in the handling of these quantities. We present the AIRS Version 5 products and their accuracies and reference key papers involving their use. We also touch briefly on the limitations of AIRS due to its coarse spatial resolution, particularly in achieving boundary layer sensitivity.