Analysis of regional high spatial resolution sounding products - Demonstration of MODIS and AIRS "stand-alone and synergistic" processing approaches

In this paper we present regional high spatial resolution sounding products from MODIS and AIRS data processed by both stand-alone and synergistic retrieval approaches. These unique regional high spatial resolution (at sensor's single field of view) atmospheric sounding products such as temperature, total precipitable water and surface temperature can provide valuable information for regional near-real time weather monitoring and meso-scale synoptic analysis, and other local environmental applications. Performance comparison between stand-alone and fusion products will assist validation effort and lead to the refinement of processing algorithms. Synergistic utilization of MODIS and AIRS data will also demonstrate the complementary information content provided by two different sensors and will pave the way for future optimal amalgamation of imaging and sounding data.