| Summary: | The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) satellite has been taking measurements since 2002 across the entire Earth. The main variables the AIRS satellite in observing are water vapor and temperature profiles. Given the long orbiting time of the satellite, the data provided is of utmost importance in understanding the climatic changes on Earth. This science is necessary because it helps us understand Earth???s climatic and cyclic events more thoroughly. These cyclic climatic events can be accentuated in a fragile environment, such as the Arctic. In the Arctic, it is difficult to observe certain characteristics of the climate due to extreme temperatures, harsh weather, consistent cloud coverage, and a limited number of ground stations. While many papers use these ground-based observations to verify satellite data, there have been few studies that validates the AIRS satellite to the ground observations. In this study, the near surface temperature obtained from AIRS satellite is evaluated against a ground-based station in Barrow, Alaska, which can lead to a better understanding of the Arctic climate in reacting to our warming climate worldwide. There is a statistically significant strong positive trend for the temperatures and their monthly anomalies. The results indicate that AIRS has a high level of accurate near surface temperatures by comparing to the Barrow Observatory as the ground truth data.
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