Microwave Limb Sounder
Welcome
The Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) experiments measure naturally-occurring microwave thermal emission from the limb (edge) of Earth's atmosphere to remotely sense vertical profiles of atmospheric gases, temperature, pressure, and cloud ice. The overall objective of these experiments is to provide information that will help improve our understanding of Earth's atmosphere and global change.
NEAR REAL-TIME DATA VIEWER
| Current GMT day: |
| Maps @ 46hPa; SO2 @ 147hPa and CO @ 215hPa |
Latest Publications
- Garfinkel, C., A. Gordon, L. Oman, F. Li, S. Davis, and S. Pawson, "Nonlinear response of tropical lower-stratospheric temperature and water vapor to ENSO," Atmos. Chem. Phys. 18, 7, 4597-4615, doi:10.5194/acp-18-4597-2018, 2018. reprint
- Noël, S., K. Weigel, K. Bramstedt, A. Rozanov, M. Weber, H. Bovensmann, and J. Burrows, "Water vapour and methane coupling in the stratosphere observed using SCIAMACHY solar occultation measurements," Atmos. Chem. Phys. 18, 7, 4463-4476, doi:10.5194/acp-18-4463-2018, 2018. reprint
- Nair, P., R. Ajayakumar, L. David, I. Girach, and K. Mottungan, "Decadal changes in surface ozone at the tropical station Thiruvananthapuram 8.542° N, 76.858° E, India: effects of anthropogenic activities and meteorological variability," Environmental Science and Pollution Research 1, 1-17, doi:10.1007/s11356-018-1695-x, 2018. reprint
- Millán, L., N. Livesey, M. Santee, and T. von Clarmann, "Characterizing sampling and quality screening biases in infrared and microwave limb sounding," Atmos. Chem. Phys. 18, 6, 4187-4199, doi:10.5194/acp-18-4187-2018, 2018. reprint
- Schranz, F., S. Fernandez, N. Kämpfer, and M. Palm, "Diurnal variation in middle-atmospheric ozone observed by ground-based microwave radiometry at Ny-Ålesund over 1 year," Atmos. Chem. Phys. 18, 6, 4113-4130, doi:10.5194/acp-18-4113-2018, 2018. reprint
Update to Level 2 v4 Data Quality Document
The Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) team has updated the "Version 4.2x Level 2 data quality and description document" with revised data screening rules for the water vapor (H2O) and nitrous oxide (N2O) products. This change improves upon the previously recommended screening approach, which inappropriately flagged a large number of H2O and N2O observations in recent years of the mission as unsuitable for scientific use. This unwarranted flagging was a consequence of a slow drift in the performance of the MLS 190 GHz receiver system making these measurements. This instrumental drift, and the related changes in the H2O and N2O products themselves (variations around 0.2-0.8%/year), is discussed further in the document. The MLS team is investigating this drift, and is working towards updated (v5) MLS algorithms that take steps to further alleviate its impacts. This latest version of the document is labeled "v4.2x-3.1" and is available here.
 |