Sub-millimeter observations of the terrestrial atmosphere during an Earth flyby of the MIRO sounder on the Rosetta spacecraft
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2013

Sub-millimeter spectra recorded by the MIRO sounder aboard the Rosetta spacecraft have been used at the time of an Earth flyby (November 2007) to check the consistency and validity of the instrumental data. High-resolution spectroscopic data were recorded in 8 channels in the vicinity of the strong water line at 557 GHz, and in a broad band continuum channel at 570 GHz. An atmospheric radiative transfer code (ARTS) and standard terrestrial atmospheres have been used to simulate the expected observational results. Differences with the MIRO spectra suggest an anomaly in the behavior of four spectroscopic channels. Further technical investigations have shown that a large part of the anomalies are associated with an instability of one of the amplifiers. The quality of the MIRO data has been further tested by inverting the spectra with an atmospheric inversion tool (Qpack) in order to derive a mesospheric temperature profile. The retrieved profile is in good agreement with the one inferred from the Earth Observing System Microwave Limb Sounder (EOS-MLS). This work illustrates the interest of validating instruments aboard planetary or cometary spacecraft by using data acquired during Earth flybys.

Microwave sounder

Inversion theory

Terrestrial atmospheric temperature

Gravitational flyby

Atmospheric radiative transfer

Cometary observations

Författare

C. Jimenez

LERMA - Laboratoire d'Etudes du Rayonnement et de la Matiere en Astrophysique et Atmospheres

S. Gulkis

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

G. Beaudin

LERMA - Laboratoire d'Etudes du Rayonnement et de la Matiere en Astrophysique et Atmospheres

T. Encrenaz

LERMA - Laboratoire d'Etudes du Rayonnement et de la Matiere en Astrophysique et Atmospheres

Patrick Eriksson

Chalmers, Rymd- och geovetenskap, Global miljömätteknik

L. Kamp

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

SangWook Lee

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

S.A. Buehler

Luleå tekniska universitet

Planetary and Space Science

0032-0633 (ISSN)

Vol. 82-83 99-112

Ämneskategorier

Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi

DOI

10.1016/j.pss.2013.03.016

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Senast uppdaterat

2018-02-28