The evolution of hyperspectral infrared sounding.

The hyperspectral sounding concept originated during the late 1970s when it was recognized that the multispectral sounding radiometers being developed for geostationary satellites lacked the vertical resolution needed to complement the horizontal and temporal resolution afforded by the geostationary platform. The hyperspectral sounding instrument observes thousands of spectral channels of atmospheric emitted radiance with spectrally uncorrelated noise. When the complete spectrum of radiance measurements is used for the spectral radiance to vertical sounding parameter retrieval process, fine scale vertical features of atmospheric profiles can be resolved because of the atmospheric emission signal enhancement according to Shannon sampling theory. High vertical resolution atmospheric soundings are revolutionizing weather and climate change predictions. This presentation traces the 25-year evolution of the hyperspectral sounding program, discusses the current limitations of contemporary measurements and their application, and concludes with an overview of next generation satellite improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]