Overview
The Scanning High-resolution Interferometer Sounder (S-HIS) is a cross-track scanning interferometer sounder which measures emitted thermal radiation at high spectral resolution between 3.3 and 18 microns. The measured spectrally resolved radiance is used for a variety of applications, including retrieval of temperature and water vapor profiles of the Earth's atmosphere, determination of surface emissivity and temperature, and validation of radiative transfer models and satellite measurements. The S-HIS produces sounding data with 2 kilometer spatial resolution (at nadir) across a 40 kilometer ground swath from an altitude of 20 kilometers (0.100 mrad FOV). The S-HIS instrument flies on a number of airborne platforms including the NASA ER-2, DC-8, Proteus, WB-57, and Global Hawk. On the Proteus and WB-57 aircraft, a zenith view is available, providing a means for calibration verification and studies of upper level water vapor.
The S-HIS instrument is maintained and operated by the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, WI. The principal scientific investigator for the S-HIS is Dr. Joe K Taylor.
