MIPAS: an instrument for atmospheric and climate research

Abstract

Abstract. MIPAS, the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding, is a mid-infrared emission spectrometer which is part of the core payload of ENVISAT. It is a limb sounder, i.e. it scans across the horizon detecting atmospheric spectral radiances which are inverted to vertical temperature, trace species and cloud distributions. These data can be used for scientific investigations in various research fields including dynamics and chemistry in the altitude region between upper troposphere and lower thermosphere.The instrument is a well calibrated and characterized Fourier transform spectrometer which is able to detect many trace constituents simultaneously. The different concepts of retrieval methods are described including multi-target and two-dimensional retrievals. Operationally generated data sets consist of temperature, H 2 O, O 3 , CH 4 , N 2 O, HNO 3 , and NO 2 profiles. Measurement errors are investigated in detail and random and systematic errors are specified. The results are validated by independent instrumentation which has been operated at ground stations or aboard balloon gondolas and aircraft. Intercomparisons of MIPAS measurements with other satellite data have been carried out, too. As a result, itCorrespondence to: H. Fischer (herbert.fischer@imk.fzk.de) has been proven that the MIPAS data are of good quality.MIPAS can be operated in different measurement modes in order to optimize the scientific output. Due to the wealth of information in the MIPAS spectra, many scientific results have already been published. They include intercomparisons of temperature distributions with ECMWF data, the derivation of the whole NO y family, the study of atmospheric processes during the Antarctic vortex split in September 2002, the determination of properties of Polar Stratospheric Clouds, the downward transport of NO x in the middle atmosphere, the stratosphere-troposphere exchange, the influence of solar variability on the middle atmosphere, and the observation of Non-LTE effects in the mesosphere.

A decadal satellite record of gravity wave activity in the lower stratosphere to study polar stratospheric cloud formation

“…Like Aqua, Envisat operated in a nearly polar, low earth orbit (790 km of altitude, 98 • of inclination, 101 min orbital period) with Equator crossings at 10:00 and 22:00 LT. Envisat MIPAS (Fischer et al, 2008) measured the 4.15-14.6 µm limb emission spectra of atmospheric constituents from the mid-troposphere to the mesosphere at high spectral resolution. Nominal measurements in the "full resolution" phase (0.025 cm −1 of spectral resolution) from 2002 to 2004 provided a 550 km horizontal sampling and a 3 km vertical sampling in the lower stratosphere.…”

“…With the spatial resolution and physical representation of the forecast models improving over time as well as the inclusion of new observations within the assimilation procedures, it is important to know how realistically the analysis captures atmospheric gravity waves. As a second application, we performed a survey of joint AIRS gravity wave observations and PSC observations from the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) instrument (Fischer et al, 2008) aboard the ESA's Envisat satellite. The survey covers the years 2003 to 2012, while Envisat MIPAS was in operation, and provides nearly continuous monitoring of PSCs throughout the polar stratosphere.…”

A multi-wavelength classification method for polar stratospheric cloud types using infrared limb spectra

“…The wintertime polar regions have been covered for several years by remote sensing satellite instruments which are not dependent on the sun as a light source. A 10-year archive (2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012) of measurements from the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) (Fischer et al, 2008) instrument on board ESA's Environment Satellite (Envisat) and ongoing measurements from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument from the NASA/CNES Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) mission (Winker et al, 2009), which started in May 2006, are available.…”

Global validation of SCIAMACHY limb ozone data (versions 2.9 and 3.0, IUP Bremen) using ozonesonde measurements

“…To achieve this goal, ground-based, balloon-borne, airborne and satellite instruments have been used to monitor ozone abundances in the atmosphere during the last decades. For satellite instruments, different observation techniques including solar/stellar occultation measurements (e.g., SAGE -Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (McCormick et al, 1989); HALOE -Halogen Occultation Experiment (Russell et al, 1994); ACE -Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (McElroy et al, 2007); GOMOSGlobal Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars (Bertaux et al, 2010)), limb scatter/emission measurements (e.g., MLS -Microwave Limb Sounder (Waters et al, 2006); MIPAS -Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (Fischer et al, 2008); OSIRIS -Optical Spectrograph and InfraRed Imager System (Llewellyn et al, 2004)) and nadir measurements (e.g., GOME/GOME2 -Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment Callies et al, 2000); OMI -Ozone Monitoring Instrument (Levelt et al, 2006); IASI -Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (Clerbaux et al, 2009)) are used (see, e.g., Sofieva et al, 2013;Hassler et al, 2014, and references therein). The passive imaging spectrometer used in this study, SCIA-MACHY (SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CartograpHY), provided vertical distributions of atmospheric trace gases by employing the limb-scattering measurement technique (Burrows et al, 1995;Bovensmann et al, 1999).…”