Evaluation of Modeled Hyperspectral Infrared Spectra Against All-Sky AIRS Observations Using Different Cloud Overlap Schemes.

Hyperspectral infrared sounding contains information about clouds, which plays an important role in modulating Earth's climate. However, there is a great deal of uncertainty in modeling the radiative effect of clouds due to its complex dependence on various parameters. Therefore, cloudy scenarios are often neglected in retrievals of infrared spectral measurements and in data assimilation.

Unexpected air pollution with marked emission reductions during the COVID-19 outbreak in China.

The absence of motor vehicle traffic and suspended manufacturing during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in China enabled assessment of the efficiency of air pollution mitigation. Up to 90% reduction of certain emissions during the city-lockdown period can be identified from satellite and ground-based observations. Unexpectedly, extreme particulate matter levels simultaneously occurred in northern China.