"What's new" Archive: 2007
- 31 October 2007: New MLS Weekly Upper Tropospheric Mean Maps for v2.2
Contact: Jonathan Jiang
Global maps of weekly-average MLS measurements of upper tropospheric cloud ice, relative humidity with respect to ice, water vapor, CO, O3 and temperature are now available from the MLS web site data page. Included for comparison are maps for the same period of GMAO GEOS-5.0.1 outputs for water vapor. Maps are currently available for MLS v2.2 at 100, 147, and 215 hPa pressure surfaces.
These plots are available at: http://mls.jpl.nasa.gov/plots
- 14 August 2007: MLS 640GHz radiometer operations resumed
Contact: Nathaniel Livesey
We are happy to report that the MLS 640 GHz receiver was successfully reactivated on August 8, 2007 after it experienced an anomaly on July 14, 2007.
From July 14 to August 8, MLS did not produce standard ClO, HCl, HOCl, BrO and HO2 products. Do note though that N2O and ClO were still measured (with poorer precision and/or accuracy) by the 190GHz radiometer, and are available in the MLS-Aura_L2GP-DGG file as the 'N2O-190' and 'ClO-190' swaths.
Reactivation activities for the 640GHz receiver did result in an interruption to MLS operations (for all products) from August 7 at 17:09 GMT to August 8 15:44 GMT.
- 27 July 2007: Anomaly in MLS 640 GHz radiometer (R4) and affected L2 products
Contact: Lucien Froidevaux
As a result of an anomaly in the electronics signal chain associated with the MLS 640 GHz radiometer, that radiometer shut down unexpectedly on Saturday July 14 (shortly after 0400 UT), interrupting the 640 GHz measurements. The rest of the instrument is working fine and producing Level 2 products nominally. Of the species measured by the 640 GHz radiometer, only HCl, BrO, HO2 and HOCl are not measured by other radiometers.
In order to avoid the (very small) risk of impacting other measurements during the TC4 Costa Rica campaign time period, the MLS team has decided to investigate this issue at a measured pace, and will not attempt to turn on the affected subsystem until the end of the TC4 science flights (near August 8).
Affected L2 standard products: There will be no MLS-retrieved values in the Level 2 files for HCl, BrO, HO2, HOCl, ClO and N2O; the L2 Status flag is set to an odd value for these products, until this issue gets resolved. Other (non-standard) MLS products exist in the L2 "DGG" files for ClO and N2O.
We hope/expect to have this radiometer's products back soon, assuming all goes well for reactivation.
- 9 July 2007: Updated IDL Level 2 Data Reader
Contact: Ryan Fuller
The IDL reader for standard MLS Level 2 data files has been updated. This update adds a convergence flag for use with v2.2 data files. You may find the reader (along with other tools) at:
Note that the reader is backward compatible -- it can be used with both MLS Level 2 versions 1.5 and 2.2
- 24 May 2007: MLS v2.2 data and documentation available
Contact: Nathaniel Livesey
Version 2.2 data from the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) are now available from the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES-DISC, http://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov).
Forward processing using v2.2 started in March 2007. Reprocessing of the entire mission is underway, with an initial emphasis on periods of special interest for validation and/or science. A calendar of reprocessed days is available from the MLS website at http://mls.jpl.nasa.gov/cal.
The Aura MLS v2.2 data quality and description document is also available along with this data release. This is an essential source of information on data usage, screening, uncertainties and changes from the previous version. This document, and other data tools, are available at http://mls.jpl.nasa.gov/data. Additional details on MLS v2.2 validation are given in forthcoming validation papers that have been submitted to the Journal of Geophysical Research.
Major changes between v2.2 and the earlier v1.5 data include improved vertical resolution for temperature and humidity in the upper troposphere / lower stratosphere, a significant reduction of cloud-induced perturbations in upper tropospheric ozone and carbon monoxide data, and the correction of a previously-reported high bias in stratospheric nitric acid (with useful measurements of nitric acid now extending into the upper troposphere).
As ever, MLS data users are strongly advised to contact the MLS scientists responsible for each product used or send correspondence to data@mls.jpl.nasa.gov. Users may also register for updates on the MLS website.
- 15 January 2007: EOS MLS Derived Meteorological Products (DMPs) now available
Contact: Gloria Manney
A set of "derived meteorological products" (DMPs) are now available
on the mls website corresponding to the MLS v1.5 L2GP dataset
(and are being produced for the v2.2 dataset as it is processed).
These comprise a subset of the most useful DMP fields that have
previously been made available for several solar occultation
instruments (also available through our website), including
potential vorticity, equivalent latitude, vortex edge criteria,
tropopause pressures, and several other potentially useful fields,
all interpolated to the position and time of the MLS measurments.
For MLS v1.52, these are calculated from the GEOS-4 and UK Met Office
meteorological datasets; for v2.2, from GEOS-5 and Met Office.
Since we've done these calculations as a research project, and
need to monitor usage, we ask you to register on our website
before getting access to these products. This is not intended
to restrict usage, but to enhance our communications with you and
allow us to document by whom, how, and how much they are being used.
We hope that these fields will be of use to you in your research
and validation efforts involving MLS data.
- 15 January 2007: New MLS website released
Contact: Brian Knosp
An upgrade of the MLS website at http://mls.jpl.nasa.gov has been released.
The intent of this upgrade is to provide more tools and information to research scientists.
- 5 January 2007: Preliminary release of EOS MLS v2.2 data
Contact: Lucien Froidevaux
The Earth Observing System (EOS) Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) team has
started reprocessing using version 2.20 MLS algorithms. This is the 2nd
major MLS data release (version 1.51/1.52 being the first).
Reprocessing of selected days in 2004, 2005, and 2006 is in progress
with initial priority being given to validation results of special
interest to the MLS team. A calendar of reprocessed and planned days
for the early v2.20 reprocessing phase is available via the MLS homepage
at http://mls.jpl.nasa.gov. "Forward processing" of incoming MLS data with
v2.20 is planned to commence in February/March 2007. The reprocessed
data are initially being provided to the Aura validation community via
the Aura Validation Data Center (AVDC). For most species the results
are generally very similar to the provisional version 2.10 data set
(only a few days processed) that had been made available for the
September 2006 Aura meeting; results differ somewhat more (from v2.10)
for H2O and N2O.
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