Abstract
Abstract. The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) is a Fourier transform spectrometer measuring the radiance emitted from the atmosphere in limb geometry in the thermal infrared spectral region. It was operated onboard the ENVISAT satellite from 2002 to 2012. Calibrated and geolocated spectra, the so-called level 1b data, are the basis for the retrieval of atmospheric parameters. In this paper we present the error budget for the level 1b data of the most recent data version 8 in terms of radiometric, spectral, and line of sight accuracy. The major changes of version 8 compared to older versions are also described. The impact of the different error sources on the spectra is characterized in terms of spectral, vertical, and temporal correlation because these correlations have an impact on the quality of the retrieved quantities. The radiometric error is in the order of 1 % to 2.4 %, the spectral accuracy is better than 0.3 ppm, and the line of sight accuracy at the tangent point is around 400 m. All errors are well within the requirements, and the achieved accuracy allows atmospheric parameters to be retrieved from the measurements with high quality.
Highlights
The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS; Fischer et al, 2008) is an infrared Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) operating in the spectral range from 685 to 2410 cm−1
Parameters from in-flight characterization have already been applied to data version 7, but they have again been improved for version 8
Since the phase of the ghost lines is changing from spectrum to spectrum, they cancel out when co-adding several spectra, e.g., for monthly means
Summary
The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS; Fischer et al, 2008) is an infrared Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) operating in the spectral range from 685 to 2410 cm−1 (about 4.15 to 14.6 μm). The basis for the retrieval are spectrally and radiometrically calibrated and geolocated spectra, the so-called level 1b data The quality of these data is essential for the quality of the retrieved species, and a good error estimate is required in order to estimate the precision and accuracy of the retrieved atmospheric parameters (see, e.g., Blumstein et al, 2007; Jarnot et al, 2006). The different types of errors are discussed, and the errors are characterized in terms of spectral and vertical correlation as well as correlation in time. The latter is very important for trend analyses.
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