| 1. |
- Kasai, Y., et al.
(author)
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Validation of stratospheric and mesospheric ozone observed by SMILES from International Space Station
- 2013
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In: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1867-1381 .- 1867-8548. ; 6:9, s. 2311-2338
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We observed ozone (O3) in the vertical region between 250 and 0.0005 hPa (~ 12–96 km) using the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES) on the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) of the International Space Station (ISS) between 12 October 2009 and 21 April 2010. The new 4 K superconducting heterodyne receiver technology of SMILES allowed us to obtain a one order of magnitude better signal-to-noise ratio for the O3 line observation compared to past spaceborne microwave instruments. The non-sun-synchronous orbit of the ISS allowed us to observe O3 at various local times. We assessed the quality of the vertical profiles of O3 in the 100–0.001 hPa (~ 16–90 km) region for the SMILES NICT Level 2 product version 2.1.5. The evaluation is based on four components: error analysis; internal comparisons of observations targeting three different instrumental setups for the same O3 625.371 GHz transition; internal comparisons of two different retrieval algorithms; and external comparisons for various local times with ozonesonde, satellite and balloon observations (ENVISAT/MIPAS, SCISAT/ACE-FTS, Odin/OSIRIS, Odin/SMR, Aura/MLS, TELIS). SMILES O3 data have an estimated absolute accuracy of better than 0.3 ppmv (3%) with a vertical resolution of 3–4 km over the 60 to 8 hPa range. The random error for a single measurement is better than the estimated systematic error, being less than 1, 2, and 7%, in the 40–1, 80–0.1, and 100–0.004 hPa pressure regions, respectively. SMILES O3 abundance was 10–20% lower than all other satellite measurements at 8–0.1 hPa due to an error arising from uncertainties of the tangent point information and the gain calibration for the intensity of the spectrum. SMILES O3 from observation frequency Band-B had better accuracy than that from Band-A. A two month period is required to accumulate measurements covering 24 h in local time of O3 profile. However such a dataset can also contain variation due to dynamical, seasonal, and latitudinal effects
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| 2. |
- Kasai, Y., et al.
(author)
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Overview of the Martian atmospheric submillimetre sounder FIRE
- 2012
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In: Planetary and Space Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 0032-0633 .- 1873-5088. ; 63-64:SI, s. 62-82
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We propose a submillimetre-wave atmospheric emission sounding instrument, called Far-InfraRed Experiment (FIRE), for the Japanese Martian exploration programme "Mars Exploration with Lander-Orbiter Synergy" (MELOS). The scientific target of FIRE/MELOS is to understand the dust suspended meteorology of the Mars. FIRE will provide key meteorological parameters, such as atmospheric temperature profiles for outside and inside dust storms, the abundance profile of the atmospheric compositions and their isotopes, and wind velocity profiles. FIRE will also provide the local time dependency of these parameters. The observational sensitivity of FIRE/MELOS is discussed in this paper. FIRE will explore the meteorological system of the Martian atmosphere including the interaction between its surface and atmosphere.
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| 3. |
- Lossow, Stefan, 1977, et al.
(author)
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The SPARC water vapour assessment II: Profile-to-profile comparisons of stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour data sets obtained from satellites
- 2019
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In: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1867-1381 .- 1867-8548. ; 12:5, s. 2693-2732
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Within the framework of the second SPARC (Stratosphere-troposphere Processes And their Role in Climate) water vapour assessment (WAVAS-II), profile-to-profile comparisons of stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour were performed by considering 33 data sets derived from satellite observations of 15 different instruments. These comparisons aimed to provide a picture of the typical biases and drifts in the observational database and to identify data-set-specific problems. The observational database typically exhibits the largest biases below 70 hPa, both in absolute and relative terms. The smallest biases are often found between 50 and 5 hPa. Typically, they range from 0.25 to 0.5 ppmv (5 % to 10 %) in this altitude region, based on the 50 % percentile over the different comparison results. Higher up, the biases increase with altitude overall but this general behaviour is accompanied by considerable variations. Characteristic values vary between 0.3 and 1 ppmv (4 % to 20 %). Obvious data-set-specific bias issues are found for a number of data sets. In our work we performed a drift analysis for data sets overlapping for a period of at least 36 months. This assessment shows a wide range of drifts among the different data sets that are statistically significant at the 2 σ uncertainty level. In general, the smallest drifts are found in the altitude range between about 30 and 10 hPa. Histograms considering results from all altitudes indicate the largest occurrence for drifts between 0.05 and 0.3 ppmv decade-1. Comparisons of our drift estimates to those derived from comparisons of zonal mean time series only exhibit statistically significant differences in slightly more than 3 % of the comparisons. Hence, drift estimates from profile-to-profile and zonal mean time series comparisons are largely interchangeable. As for the biases, a number of data sets exhibit prominent drift issues. In our analyses we found that the large number of MIPAS data sets included in the assessment affects our general results as well as the bias summaries we provide for the individual data sets. This is because these data sets exhibit a relative similarity with respect to the remaining data sets, despite the fact that they are based on different measurement modes and different processors implementing different retrieval choices. Because of that, we have by default considered an aggregation of the comparison results obtained from MIPAS data sets. Results without this aggregation are provided on multiple occasions to characterise the effects due to the numerous MIPAS data sets. Among other effects, they cause a reduction of the typical biases in the observational database.
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| 4. |
- Baron, P., et al.
(author)
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Observation of horizontal winds in the middle-atmosphere between 30 degrees S and 55 degrees N during the northern winter 2009-2010
- 2013
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In: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 13:12, s. 6049-6064
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Although the links between stratospheric dynamics, climate and weather have been demonstrated, direct observations of stratospheric winds are lacking, in particular at altitudes above 30 km. We report observations of winds between 8 and 0.01 hPa (similar to 35-80 km) from October 2009 to April 2010 by the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES) on the International Space Station. The altitude range covers the region between 35-60 km where previous space-borne wind instruments show a lack of sensitivity. Both zonal and meridional wind components were obtained, though not simultaneously, in the latitude range from 30 degrees S to 55 degrees N and with a single profile precision of 7-9 ms(-1) between 8 and 0.6 hPa and better than 20 ms(-1) at altitudes above. The vertical resolution is 5-7 km except in the upper part of the retrieval range (10 km at 0.01 hPa). In the region between 1-0.05 hPa, an absolute value of the mean difference 5 ms(-1)). In the mesosphere, SMILES and ECMWF zonal winds exhibit large differences (>20 ms(-1)), especially in the tropics. We illustrate our results by showing daily and monthly zonal wind variations, namely the semi-annual oscillation in the tropics and reversals of the flow direction between 50-55 degrees N during sudden stratospheric warmings. The daily comparison with ECMWF winds reveals that in the beginning of February, a significantly stronger zonal westward flow is measured in the tropics at 2 hPa compared to the flow computed in the analysis (difference of similar to 20 ms(-1)). The results show that the comparison between SMILES and ECMWF winds is not only relevant for the quality assessment of the new SMILES winds, but it also provides insights on the quality of the ECMWF winds themselves. Although the instrument was not specifically designed for measuring winds, the results demonstrate that space-borne sub-mm wave radiometers have the potential to provide good quality data for improving the stratospheric winds in atmospheric models.
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| 5. |
- Baron, P., et al.
(author)
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Performance Assessment of Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder-2 (SMILES-2)
- 2019
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In: International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS). ; , s. 7556-7559
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- © 2019 IEEE. SMILES2 is a mission prepared for the next call-for-proposals for JAXA/ISAS M-class scientific satellite mission. It aims at scanning the atmospheric limb from 20 to 160 km above the surface at frequencies near 700 GHz and 2 THz. It could provide the temperature and composition as well as, for the first time, the horizontal wind vector above 30 km, the atomic oxygen in its ground state above 90 km, and the atmospheric density and the geomagnetic field vector near the mesopause. The mission is proposed for the 2nd time and the instrument design has been improved for accounting for the recommendations of the review committee. In this publication, we discuss the measurement performances assessed from simulations including latest results showing the mission potential for measuring the geomagnetic field between 70-110 km.
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| 6. |
- Baron, P., et al.
(author)
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Potential for the measurement of mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) wind, temperature, density and geomagnetic field with Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder 2 (SMILES-2)
- 2020
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In: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1867-1381 .- 1867-8548. ; 13:1, s. 219-237
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder 2 (SMILES-2) is a satellite mission proposed in Japan to probe the middle and upper atmosphere (20-160 km). The main instrument is composed of 4K cooled radiometers operating near 0.7 and 2 THz. It could measure the diurnal changes of the horizontal wind above 30 km, temperature above 20 km, ground-state atomic oxygen above 90 km and atmospheric density near the mesopause, as well as abundance of about 15 chemical species. In this study we have conducted simulations to assess the wind, temperature and density retrieval performance in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (60- 110 km) using the radiometer at 760 GHz. It contains lines of water vapor (H2O), molecular oxygen (O2) and nitric oxide (NO) that are the strongest signals measured with SMILES-2 at these altitudes. The Zeeman effect on the O2 line due to the geomagnetic field (B) is considered; otherwise, the retrieval errors would be underestimated by a factor of 2 above 90 km. The optimal configuration for the radiometer's polarization is found to be vertical linear. Considering a retrieval vertical resolution of 2.5 km, the line-of-sight wind is retrieved with a precision of 2-5ms-1 up to 90 km and 30ms-1 at 110 km. Temperature and atmospheric density are retrieved with a precision better than 5K and 7% up to 90 km (30K and 20% at 110 km). Errors induced by uncertainties on the vector B are mitigated by retrieving it. The retrieval of B is described as a side-product of the mission. At high latitudes, precisions of 30-100 nT on the vertical component and 100-300 nT on the horizontal one could be obtained at 85 and 105 km (vertical resolution of 20 km). SMILES-2 could therefore provide the first measurements of B close to the electrojets' altitude, and the precision is enough to measure variations induced by solar storms in the auroral regions.
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| 7. |
- Baron, P., et al.
(author)
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Simulation study for the Stratospheric Inferred Winds (SIW) sub-millimeter limb sounder
- 2018
-
In: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1867-1381 .- 1867-8548. ; 11:7, s. 4545-4566
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Stratospheric Inferred Winds (SIW) is a Swedish mini sub-millimeter limb sounder selected for the 2nd InnoSat platform, with launch planned for around 2022. It is intended to fill the altitude gap between 30 and 70 km in atmospheric wind measurements and also aims at pursuing the limb observations of temperature and key atmospheric constituents between 10 and 90 km when current satellite missions will probably come to an end. Line-of-sight winds are retrieved from the Doppler shift of molecular emission lines introduced by the wind field. Observations will be performed with two antennas pointing toward the limb in perpendicular directions in order to reconstruct the 2-D horizontal wind vector. Each antenna has a vertical field of view (FOV) of 5 km. The chosen spectral band, near 655 GHz, contains a dense group of strong O3 lines suitable for exploiting the small amount of wind information in stratospheric spectra. Using both sidebands of the heterodyne receiver, a large number of chemical species will be measured, including O3 isotopologues, H2O, HDO, HCl, ClO, N2O, HNO3, NO, NO2, HCN, CH3CN and HO2. This paper presents a simulation study that assesses measurement performance. The line-of-sight winds are retrieved between 30 and 90 km with the best sensitivity between 35 and 70 km, where the precision (1 σ ) is 5-10 mĝ€†sĝ'1 for a single scan. Similar performance can be obtained during day and night conditions except in the lower mesosphere, where the photo-dissociation of O3 in daytime reduces the sensitivity by 50 % near 70 km. Profiles of O3, H2O and temperature are retrieved with high precision up to 50 km ( < 1 %, < 2 %, 1 K, respectively). Systematic errors due to uncertainties in spectroscopic parameters, in the radiometer sideband ratio and in the radiance calibration process are investigated. A large wind retrieval bias of 10-30 mĝ€†sĝ'1 between 30 and 40 km could be induced by the air-broadening parameter uncertainties of O3 lines. This highlights the need for good knowledge of these parameters and for studying methods to mitigate the retrieval bias..
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| 8. |
- Baron, P., et al.
(author)
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The Level 2 research product algorithms for the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES)
- 2011
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In: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1867-1381 .- 1867-8548. ; 4, s. 2105-2124
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper describes the algorithms of the level-2 research (L2r) processing chain developed for the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES). The chain has been developed in parallel to the operational chain for conducting researches on calibration and retrieval algorithms. L2r chain products are available to the scientific community. The objective of version 2 is the retrieval of the vertical distribution of trace gases in the altitude range of 18–90 km. A theoretical error analysis is conducted to estimate the retrieval feasibility of key parameters of the processing: line-of-sight elevation tangent altitudes (or angles), temperature and ozone profiles. While pointing information is often retrieved from molecular oxygen lines, there is no oxygen line in the SMILES spectra, so the strong ozone line at 625.371 GHz has been chosen. The pointing parameters and the ozone profiles are retrieved from the line wings which are measured with high signal to noise ratio, whereas the temperature profile is retrieved from the optically thick line center. The main systematic component of the retrieval error was found to be the neglect of the non-linearity of the radiometric gain in the calibration procedure. This causes a temperature retrieval error of 5–10 K. Because of these large temperature errors, it is not possible to construct a reliable hydrostatic pressure profile. However, as a consequence of the retrieval of pointing parameters, pressure induced errors are significantly reduced if the retrieved trace gas profiles are represented on pressure levels instead of geometric altitude levels. Further, various setups of trace gas retrievals have been tested. The error analysis for the retrieved HOCl profile demonstrates that best results for inverting weak lines can be obtained by using narrow spectral windows.
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| 9. |
- Khosravi, Maryam, 1975, et al.
(author)
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Diurnal variation of stratospheric and lower mesospheric HOCl, ClO and HO2 at the equator: comparison of 1-D model calculations with measurements by satellite instruments
- 2013
-
In: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 13:15, s. 7587-7606
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The diurnal variation of HOCl and the related species ClO, HO2 and HCl measured by satellites has been compared with the results of a one-dimensional photochemical model. The study compares the data from various limb-viewing instruments with model simulations from the middle stratosphere to the lower mesosphere. Data from three sub-millimetre instruments and two infrared spectrometers are used, namely from the Sub-Millimetre Radiometer (SMR) on board Odin, the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on board Aura, the Superconducting Submillimeter-wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES) on the International Space Station, the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) on board ENVISAT, and the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) on board SCISAT. Inter-comparison of the measurements from instruments on sun-synchronous satellites (SMR, MLS, MIPAS) and measurements from solar occultation instruments (ACE-FTS) is challenging since the measurements correspond to different solar zenith angles (or local times). However, using a model which covers all solar zenith angles and data from the SMILES instrument which measured at all local times over a period of several months provides the possibility to verify the model and to indirectly compare the diurnally variable species. The satellite data were averaged for latitudes of 20 degrees S to 20 degrees N for the SMILES observation period from November 2009 to April 2010 and were compared at three altitudes: 35, 45 and 55 km. Besides presenting the SMILES data, the study also shows a first comparison of the latest MLS data (version 3.3) of HOCl, ClO, and HO2 with other satellite observations, as well as a first evaluation of HO2 observations made by Odin/SMR. The MISU-1D model has been carefully initialised and run for conditions and locations of the observations. The diurnal cycle features for the species investigated here are generally well reproduced by the model. The satellite observations and the model agree well in terms of absolute mixing ratios. The differences between the day and night values of the model are in good agreement with the observations although the amplitude of the HO2 diurnal variation is 10-20 % lower in the model than in the observations. In particular, the data offered the opportunity to study the reaction ClO+HO2 -> HOCl+O-2 in the lower mesosphere at 55 km. At this altitude the HOCl night-time variation depends only on this reaction. The result of this analysis points towards a value of the rate constant within the range of the JPL 2006 recommendation and the upper uncertainty limit of the JPL 2011 recommendation at 55 km.
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| 10. |
- Sagawa, H., et al.
(author)
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Comparison of SMILES ClO profiles with satellite, balloon-borne and ground-based measurements
- 2013
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In: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1867-1381 .- 1867-8548. ; 6:12, s. 3325-3347
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We evaluate the quality of ClO profiles derived from the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES) on the International Space Station (ISS). Version 2.1.5 of the level-2 product generated by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) is the subject of this study. Based on sensitivity studies, the systematic error was estimated as 5–10 pptv at the pressure range of 80–20 hPa, 35 pptv at the ClO peak altitude (~ 4 hPa), and 5–10 pptv at pressures ≤ 0.5 hPa for daytime mid-latitude conditions. For nighttime measurements, a systematic error of 8 pptv was estimated for the ClO peak altitude (~ 2 hPa). The SMILES NICT v2.1.5 ClO profiles agree with those derived from another level-2 processor developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) within the bias uncertainties, except for the nighttime measurements in the low and middle latitude regions where the SMILES NICT v2.1.5 profiles have a negative bias of ~ 30 pptv in the lower stratosphere. This bias is considered to be due to the use of a limited spectral bandwidth in the retrieval process of SMILES NICT v2.1.5, which makes it difficult to distinguish between the weak ClO signal and wing contributions of spectral features outside the bandwidth. In the middle and upper stratosphere outside the polar regions, no significant systematic bias was found for the SMILES NICT ClO profile with respect to data sets from other instruments such as the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), the Odin Sub-Millimetre Radiometer (SMR), the Envisat Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS), and the ground-based radiometer at Mauna Kea, which demonstrates the scientific usability of the SMILES ClO data including the diurnal variations. Inside the chlorine-activated polar vortex, the SMILES NICT v2.1.5 ClO profiles show larger volume mixing ratios by 0.4 ppbv (30%) at 50 hPa compared to those of the JAXA processed profiles. This discrepancy is also considered to be an effect of the limited spectral bandwidth in the retrieval processing. We also compared the SMILES NICT ClO profiles of chlorine-activated polar vortex conditions with those measured by the balloon-borne instruments: Terahertz and submillimeter Limb Sounder (TELIS) and the MIPAS-balloon instrument (MIPAS-B). In conclusion, the SMILES NICT v2.1.5 ClO data can be used at pressures ≤ ~30 hPa for scientific analysis.
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