Radiance Simulations in Support of Climate Services

Climate services are largely supported by satellite Climate Data Records (CDRs). This paper demonstrates how CDR development and uptake benefit from simulations. We identify three classes of application. Using global reanalyses and an offline radiance simulator, we provide three examples for each application class. The first application is to validate assumptions. Hereto we establish the order of channels in the U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor H (SSH) data record, rescued from oblivion thanks to inter-agency collaboration. We then show the value of applying advanced quality controls to geostationary European (Meteosat) and Japanese (Himawari) images. We also investigate the corrections applied during reprocessing of DMSP Special Sensor Microwave Temperature sounder (SSM/T-1) data. The second application is to assess the coherence between and observations. Hereto we show the capability of reanalyses to reconstruct spectra observed by the Spektrometer Interferometer (SI-1) flown on Soviet satellites before 1980. We also explore the coherence of the impact of two major volcanic eruptions between Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and the High-resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS) data. Finally, we investigate how advanced bias correction can help improve coherence between reanalysis and Nimbus-3 Medium-Resolution Infrared Radiometer (MRIR) in 1969. The third application is to inform CDR users about particular quality aspects. Hereto we show, with the Nimbus-7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SSMR), the Meteosat Second Generation imager, and the DMSP Special Sensor Microwave Water Vapor Profiler (SSM/T-2), how simulations bring information that should help to make a better-informed use of the corresponding CDR.