MIPAS temperatures help to merge SSU and AMSU data

MIPAS temperatures weighted by AMSU weighting functions (blue) and AMSU temperatures (red) agree remarkably well for the various AMSU channels. Thus MIPAS temperatures have been selected to help to merge SSU and AMSU temperatures. The thin curves represent deseasonalized temperatures. Only minor bias corrections were necessary.

SSU and AMSU temperatures cannot be directly combined because the weighting functions of the channels of these instruments are not consistent. The altitude resolution of MIPAS temperature profiles is good enough to represent the weighting functions of both SSU and AMSU. Thus MIPAS has been used as a transfer standard.