The Improved Stratospheric and Mesospheric Sounder (ISAMS) Level 3A data

Introduction

The Improved Stratospheric and Mesospheric Sounder (ISAMS) measured vertical profiles of temperature and a number of atmospheric constituents. ISAMS was built by an instrument team based at Oxford University and launched on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) on 12th September 1991 and operated until July 1992. The Principal Investigator is Prof. Frederick Taylor.

ISAMS is an infra-red radiometer, which observes thermal emission from the Earth's limb. The technique of pressure modulator radiometry is used to derive vertical profiles of temperature, mixing ratios of carbon monoxide (CO), water vapour (H₂O), methane (CH₄), ozone (O₃), nitric acid (HNO₃), dinitrogen pentoxide (N₂O₅), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) and aerosol extinction. Further details can be found in the help file written at the BADC.

The data coverage extends from 80°S to 80°N, but at any one time this is usually restricted to 34°S to 80°N or 34°N to 80°S. The vertical coverage of the measurements is from the tropopause to the mesopause (15-80 km). The range over which retrievals are valid is outlined in the help file.

The BADC holds ISAMS data at level 3A and version 10 and ISAMS data at level 2 (isams l2) (uninterpolated profiles at measurement locations) and version 8, the latter has restricted access.

Access to data - File Format

The BADC holds ISAMS data at level 3A and version 10. These data are public and the ISAMS Level 3A data directories can be accessed directly over the web.
Please read the 00README file available under /badc/isamsl3/ directory to guide you through the tree structure and the data directory.

A guide is available to help you retrieving the data. BADC software is also provided to read the data.

Documentation

The BADC provides several documents to help you use this dataset. These include the full set of documentation produced by the instrument team at NASA Langley, as well as a help file written at the BADC which contains an overview of the instrument, measurement techniques and the species measured, including details of coverage, resolution and data quality.

Links and References

The principal reference for the ISAMS instrument is Taylor et al. (1993) J. Geophys. Res. 98 D6, pp. 10799 - 10814. There are also special issues of Geophysical Research Letters (Vol. 20, no. 12, 1993) and Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences (Vol. 51, no. 20, 1994) which are both devoted to the UARS data.

We provide a list of other references to papers using ISAMS data. There is also a list of references to other UARS papers

Citation

Date of citation

Who to Contact

For general queries about these pages or about browsing the data, you should contact the BADC support line.

For further information about the data or the instrument contact the ISAMS PIs Prof. Frederick Taylor, Dr. Clive Rodgers or the team at Oxford.

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