IASI first measurement data available
EUMETSAT reports that the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) carried on MetOp-A was successfully put into nominal operation mode on 27 November 2006 over the ground station on Svalbard, Norway.
The image above shows Greenland and is the first image generated by the instrument's integrated infrared imager.
Based on the so-called verification data, IASI generated its first raw interferogram in orbit number 552 as shown here in the second image.
At the time of the first measurements, the on-board processing and generation of Level-0 spectra were disabled to all the team at the IASI Technical Expertise Centre (TEC) in Toulouse, France to perform the initial tuning of operational parameters. Following the analysis of the initial measurements, the TEC will determine the first set of operational parameters to be uploaded to the instrument. The on-board processing will then be enabled and the generation of the first IASI spectra on-board is expected shortly.
Using existing available measurement data, the IASI team at the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in Toulouse has produced the first spectra which is shown here.
Developed by CNES in cooperation with EUMETSAT, IASI is a state-of-the-art, sophisticated sounding instrument that will be used for global measurements of atmospheric temperature and moisture with unprecedented accuracy and spectral resolution to improve weather prediction. Alcatel Alenia Space in Cannes, France is the prime contractor for the instrument.
