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Abstract. The Community Long-term Infrared Microwave Combined Atmospheric Product System (CLIMCAPS) retrieves vertical profiles of temperature, water vapor, greenhouse and pollutant gases, and cloud properties from measurements made by infrared and microwave instruments on polar-orbiting satellites. These are AIRS/AMSU on Aqua and CrIS/ATMS on Suomi NPP and NOAA20; together they span nearly 2 decades of daily observations (2002 to present) that can help characterize diurnal and seasonal atmospheric processes from different time periods or regions across the globe. While the measurements are consistent, their information content varies due to uncertainty stemming from (i) the observing system (e.g., instrument type and noise, choice of inversion method, algorithmic implementation, and assumptions) and (ii) localized conditions (e.g., presence of clouds, rate of temperature change with pressure, amount of water vapor, and surface type). CLIMCAPS quantifies, propagates, and reports all known sources of uncertainty as thoroughly as possible so that its retrieval products have value in climate science and applications. In this paper we characterize the CLIMCAPS version 2.0 system and diagnose its observing capability (ability to retrieve information accurately and consistently over time and space) for seven atmospheric variables – temperature, H2O, CO, O3, CO2, HNO3, and CH4 – from two satellite platforms, Aqua and NOAA20. We illustrate how CLIMCAPS observing capability varies spatially, from scene to scene, and latitudinally across the globe. We conclude with a discussion of how CLIMCAPS uncertainty metrics can be used in diagnosing its retrievals to promote understanding of the observing system and the atmosphere it measures.
Smith et al. (Mon,) studied this question.