Long-term monitoring of stratospheric temperature trends using radiance measurements obtained by the TIROS-N series of NOAA spacecraft

Abstract

In order to determine longterm trends in stratospheric temperature from observations by a series of satellite radiometers, it is necessary to establish the reproducibility and systematic drifts in both the radiometric and the spectroscopic performance of successive instruments. The practical limitations on long term temperature monitoring imposed by current operational designs are illustrated with time series of data from both the Stratospheric Sounding Unit (SSU) and Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) on the TIROS-N series of NOAA spacecraft.