CrIS Observations of Gravity Waves
Introduction
This data repository provides access to atmospheric gravity wave observations derived from the Cross-Track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) and NOAA Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) satellites. Stratospheric gravity wave activity is inferred from infrared radiance measurements in the 4.3 µm and 15 µm carbon dioxide absorption bands. The repository includes browse imagery and daily netCDF data files containing brightness temperature products, with coverage from 2015 to the present.
Browse images
The browse images provided on this web site show global maps of stratospheric gravity wave activity in terms of 4.3 μm brightness temperature perturbations. Data are shown separately for nighttime (01:30 LT) and daytime (13:30 LT) observations. Note that the brightness temperature perturbations shown in the maps are usually much smaller than real gravity wave temperature amplitudes, because of the vertical smoothing effect of the nadir observation geometry. In the browse images we restricted the range of the brightness temperature perturbations to make also weaker wave events visible.
Next to orography and jet sources, deep convection and thunderstorms may be a significant source of stratospheric gravity wave activity. CrIS radiance measurements in the 8.1 μm spectral window region can be used to detect clouds and convection. In cloud-free scenes the 8.1 μm measurements are sensitive to surface temperatures. In cloudy scenes the measurements indicate cloud top temperatures, which are usually much lower than surface temperatures.
Data access
The gravity wave data sets provided on this web site have been created using CrIS L1B Infrared (IR) geolocated and calibrated radiances distributed by the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC).
Legal notes
The data sets and browse images provided on this web site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You are free to share the material in any medium or format and adapt it for any purpose, even commercially. You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. The data are distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty. Please follow the link to see the terms and conditions of the license:
References
This data repository can be cited via the following DOI:
Hoffmann, Lars, "CrIS Observations of Gravity Waves", https://doi.org/10.26165/JUELICH-DATA/JSCAKL, Jülich DATA, 2025.
Contact
We encourage any scientist interested in the data set to contact us for discussions on how you like to use the data. This might help to reduce the risk of mistaken applications and helps us to track the distribution and areas of applications of the data set.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions:
Dr. Lars Hoffmann
Forschungszentrum Jülich
Jülich Supercomputing Centre
52425 Jülich
Germany
e-mail: l.hoffmann@fz-juelich.de
