International ATOVS Processing Package (IAPP) Version 1.1

[kathys]

An updated version (version 1.1) of the International ATOVS Processing Package (IAPP) retrieval software has been prepared for release as part of the NOAA Community Satellite Processing Package (CSPP). CSPP IAPP retrieves atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles, total ozone and other parameters in both clear and cloudy atmospheres from direct broadcast (DB) ATOVS radiance measurements. This CSPP release provides IAPP version 4.1 (January 2017), adapted and tested for operation in a real-time direct broadcast environment. The software contains binary executable files and supporting static data files, as well as input and output files for verification of a successful installation.

The software has been designed to be used with the High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS), the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A), and the Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS) level 1d files generated using the ATOVS and AVHRR Pre-processing Package (AAPP). All three instruments must be included as part of the level 1d file in order for CSPP IAPP to execute correctly.

CSPP IAPP supports the following satellites:

• NOAA-15,
• NOAA-16,
• NOAA-18,
• NOAA-19,
• Metop-A, and
• Metop-B.

What's new in Version 1.1?

• CSPP IAPP has been updated to use IAPP Version 4.1.
• The software no longer uses AMSU Channel 15 on Metop-B due to channel failure.
• Quality check failures are now reported to the user.
• Improvements to logging for easier error detection.
• Users can now provide multiple files or a directory as input.

The output retrievals are stored in a NetCDF format file. One output file containing 42 product arrays is created for each input data segment.

System requirements for the CSPP IAPP v1.1 software are as follows:

• Intel or AMD CPU with 64-bit instruction support,
• 1 GB RAM,
• CentOS-6 64-bit Linux (or other compatible 64-bit Linux distribution),
• 3 GB of disk space (plus space for your own DB data and CSPP IAPP products).

The CSPP IAPP v1.1 software and installation and execution instructions may be downloaded from:

http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/cspp/

A CSPP Sounder Quick Look software package is also distributed through the CSPP website, that allows users to create navigated pressure level plots of temperature and moisture, as well as Skew-T thermodynamic diagrams from output IAPP retrieval NetCDF files.