Simulated multispectral temperature and atmospheric composition retrievals for the JPL GEO-IR Sounder

Natraj, Vijay; Luo, Ming; Blavier, Jean-Francois; Payne, Vivienne H.; Posselt, Derek J.; Sander, Stanley P.; Zeng, Zhao-Cheng; Neu, Jessica L.; Tremblay, Denis; Wu, Longtao; Roman, Jacola A.; Wu, Yen-Hung; Dorsky, Leonard I.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1251-2022

Articles | Volume 15, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1251-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1251-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 5

Research article

|

10 Mar 2022

Research article |

| 10 Mar 2022

Simulated multispectral temperature and atmospheric composition retrievals for the JPL GEO-IR Sounder

Vijay Natraj, Ming Luo, Jean-Francois Blavier, Vivienne H. Payne, Derek J. Posselt, Stanley P. Sander, Zhao-Cheng Zeng, Jessica L. Neu, Denis Tremblay, Longtao Wu, Jacola A. Roman, Yen-Hung Wu, and Leonard I. Dorsky

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Final revised paper (published on 10 Mar 2022)
Preprint (discussion started on 05 Oct 2021)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

RC1:
'Comment on amt-2021-290', Anonymous Referee #1, 18 Nov 2021

The authors present a detailed computation of DOFs for atmospheric retrievals for a notional multispectral sounder. The paper is well presented and high-quality a-priori data that has been used for other instruments is used for their DOF estimates. I don't think their are any surprises here, but the paper does give decisions makers and proposers a feel for the benefits of their notional sounder (most likely a very expensive one indeed).

However, I think the discussion on OSSEs near the end is uneeded and gives the reader the wrong impression. No OSSEs are done here and I don't think it is warranted to talk about what you are going to do in the future. A sentence will do.

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2021-290-RC1
- AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Vijay Natraj, 27 Jan 2022
  
  We would like to thank the reviewer for their thoughtful and constructive comments and suggestions to improve the clarity of the manuscript. We have made changes to address these comments and suggestions.
  Point-by-point responses to the comments are provided in the attached document. The reviewer comments are in blue, our responses are in red (line numbers refer to those in the revised manuscript), and modifications to the original manuscript are highlighted in yellow.
  Sincerely,
  Vijay Natraj
  On behalf of all co-authors
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2021-290-AC1
RC3:
'Comment on amt-2021-290', Anonymous Referee #3, 30 Dec 2021

General comments:

Interesting and informative article, especially that it includes temperature, moisture and trace gases. There are many benefits to a full spectral (VIS/NIR/IR/LWIR) coverage instrument.

While it’s stated in the manuscript, there is no mention of deriving wind fields in the abstract. Please add something about winds in the abstract, as it’s a key to what the geostationary perspective supplies.

Please consider including these references:

https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/atot/26/11/2009jtecha1248_1.xml (JTECH Why geo sounder?)

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021GL093672 (FY-4A GIIRS winds)

http://www.iapjournals.ac.cn/aas/en/article/doi/10.1007/s00376-018-8036-3 (AAS Local storm OSSE)

https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/102/5/BAMS-D-19-0304.1.xml (BAMS MTG)

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/32921 (NOAA Value Assessment)

https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/98/8/bams-d-16-0065.1.xml (BAMS FY-4A)

Given that an advanced IR sounder is slated for the GeoXO mission (https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/next-generation-satellites/geostationary-extended-observations-geoxo) should be noted.

Detailed comments:

Line 63. At least add Suomi to Suomi-NPP.

Line 64. Assume you are taking about geo sounders, if so, that should be stated. Don’t think that 1 hour refresh is a fine as what geo can provide (ABI provides 1min data). FY-4A GIIRS has provided 15 min data over regional areas. If you are referring to only full disk (or full sounding disk) coverage, than that should be stated.

Line 67. Consider to add a winds column for Table 2. Would be “yes” for the geo’s.

Figures 2-4. Please add wavelength labels along the top of each plot. Many ‘think’ in this space and not cm-1.

Line 113. How does this database compare to the IREMIS database (https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/iremis/)? (in overlapping spectral regions).

Line 263 seems wordy. Maybe delete that sentence and modify the following sentence:

Simulations have been performed for the idealized clear-sky/no aerosols conditions.

Line 269. Remove ‘here’.

Line 315. If you average 25 pixels, might you bring in more (un-detected) cloud “noise”?

Line 384. Isn’t a 4d-var approach supposed to better handle more frequent observations?

Table 4. Should include the 2^nd GIIRS as well, or at least be clear that table 4 refers to the demo unit.

###

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2021-290-RC3
- AC2: 'Reply on RC3', Vijay Natraj, 27 Jan 2022
  
  We would like to thank the reviewer for their thoughtful and constructive comments and suggestions to improve the clarity of the manuscript. We have made changes to address these comments and suggestions.
  Point-by-point responses to the comments are provided in the attached document. The reviewer comments are in blue, our responses are in red (line numbers refer to those in the revised manuscript), and modifications to the original manuscript are highlighted in yellow.
  Sincerely,
  Vijay Natraj
  On behalf of all co-authors
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2021-290-AC2

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload

AR by Vijay Natraj on behalf of the Authors (27 Jan 2022) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (28 Jan 2022) by Lars Hoffmann

AR by Vijay Natraj on behalf of the Authors (03 Feb 2022) Manuscript

Short summary

High-fidelity monitoring and forecast of air quality and the hydrological cycle require understanding the vertical distribution of temperature, humidity, and trace gases at high spatiotemporal resolution. We describe a new instrument concept, called the JPL GEO-IR Sounder, that would provide this information for the first time from a single instrument platform. Simulations demonstrate the benefits of combining measurements from multiple wavelengths for this purpose from geostationary orbit.