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NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) of Intersatellite Calibrated Clear-Sky High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS) Channel 12 Brightness Temperature Version 3.2

Published by DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Catalog Last Checked: April 12, 2026 at 09:25 PM | Dataset Last Updated: January 01, 2021 at 12:00 AM
The High-Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS) of intersatellite calibrated channel 12 brightness temperature product is a gridded global monthly time series product spanning from 1979 to the most current full month, updated monthly. Among the twenty channels in the HIRS instrument, channel 12 measures upper tropospheric water vapor. Multiple polar orbiting satellites in the NOAA Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) and MetOp series have carried HIRS instruments. Due to the independence in calibration of the individual HIRS instruments, biases exist between satellites. Examination of the intersatellite biases shows that the biases are scene brightness temperature dependent. These HIRS channel 12 measurements from the NOAA POES and MetOp series are calibrated to a baseline satellite based on intersatellite bias correction data. The dataset is provided as monthly mean 2.5x2.5 degree latitude/longitude in netcdf format. This CDR is key to understanding water vapor feedback climatology and has been used to study long-term water vapor variability, to evaluate climate models, and to study large-scale atmospheric circulations.

Resources

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  • NCEI Dataset Landing Page

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  • HIRS CH12 TB CDR FTP

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  • NOAA THREDDS Catalog for HIRS CH12 TB CDR

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  • Registry of Open Data on AWS

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  • AWS S3 Explorer (Region: us-east-1)

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  • Azure Landing Page (Region: us-east)

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  • Three decades of intersatellite-calibrated High-Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder upper tropospheric water vapor

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  • Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Keywords

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  • GCOS Essential Climate Variables

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Complete Metadata
@type dcat:Dataset
accessLevel non-public
accrualPeriodicity R/P1M
contactPoint 
                                            {
  "fn": "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "@type": "vcard:Contact",
  "hasEmail": "mailto:hirs_ch12_contacts@noaa.gov"
}
describedByType application/octet-steam
description The High-Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS) of intersatellite calibrated channel 12 brightness temperature product is a gridded global monthly time series product spanning from 1979 to the most current full month, updated monthly. Among the twenty channels in the HIRS instrument, channel 12 measures upper tropospheric water vapor. Multiple polar orbiting satellites in the NOAA Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) and MetOp series have carried HIRS instruments. Due to the independence in calibration of the individual HIRS instruments, biases exist between satellites. Examination of the intersatellite biases shows that the biases are scene brightness temperature dependent. These HIRS channel 12 measurements from the NOAA POES and MetOp series are calibrated to a baseline satellite based on intersatellite bias correction data. The dataset is provided as monthly mean 2.5x2.5 degree latitude/longitude in netcdf format. This CDR is key to understanding water vapor feedback climatology and has been used to study long-term water vapor variability, to evaluate climate models, and to study large-scale atmospheric circulations.
distribution 
                                            [
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "NCEI Dataset Landing Page",
    "accessURL": "https://doi.org/10.25921/zqqa-ks18",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
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  {
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    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Direct download location for the NOAA HIRS TB CDR data files.",
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    "title": "Three decades of intersatellite-calibrated High-Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder upper tropospheric water vapor",
    "accessURL": "https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JD014847",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Paper on generating a climatologically homogenized time series of the upper tropospheric water vapor (UTWV), intersatellite calibration for 3 decades of HIRS Ch12 clear-sky measurements.",
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    "description": "Overview of the GCOS Essential Climate Variables.",
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]
identifier https://data.noaa.gov/waf/NOAA/NESDIS/ncei/aim/iso/xml/C01608.xml
issued 2021-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00
keyword 
                                            [
  "NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) Program",
  "Satellite",
  "Earth Science > Atmosphere > Atmospheric Water Vapor > Water Vapor",
  "Atmospheric - Upper-air - Upper-air Water Vapour",
  "Vertical Location > Troposphere",
  "Vertical Location > Troposphere",
  "NOAA OneStop Project",
  "Earth Remote Sensing Instruments > Passive Remote Sensing > Profilers/Sounders > HIRS > High Resolution
							Infrared Radiation Sounder",
  "Earth Observation Satellites > NOAA POES (Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites) > NOAA POES > NOAA
							Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCDC > National Climatic Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce"
]
landingPage https://doi.org/10.25921/zqqa-ks18
language 
                                            []
license https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
modified 2021-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00
publisher 
                                            {
  "name": "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
}
references 
                                            [
  "https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JD014847"
]
rights otherRestrictions
spatial 180.0,-90.0,-180.0,90.0
temporal 1978-11-22T00:00:00+00:00/1978-11-22T00:00:00+00:00
title NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) of Intersatellite Calibrated Clear-Sky High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS) Channel 12 Brightness Temperature Version 3.2

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