Abstract
Abstract. Nitric oxide (NO) measurements from the Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment (SOFIE) are validated through detailed uncertainty analysis and comparisons with independent observations. SOFIE was compared with coincident satellite measurements from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) – Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) instrument and the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) instrument. The comparisons indicate mean differences of less than ∼50 % for altitudes from roughly 50 to 105 km for SOFIE spacecraft sunrise and 50 to 140 km for SOFIE sunsets. Comparisons of NO time series show a high degree of correlation between SOFIE and both ACE and MIPAS for altitudes below ∼130 km, indicating that measured NO variability in time is robust. SOFIE uncertainties increase below ∼80 km due to interfering H2O absorption and signal correction uncertainties, which are larger for spacecraft sunrise compared to sunset. These errors are sufficiently large in sunrises that reliable NO measurements are infrequent below ∼80 km.
Highlights
The Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment (SOFIE) has measured nitric oxide (NO) from the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) satellite since May 2007
SOFIE NO observations have been used to determine the importance of changes in geomagnetic activity and solar radiation (Hendrickx et al, 2017), and to characterize the response of NO to electron precipitation (Smith-Johnsen et al, 2017, 2018; Newnham et al, 2018)
Coincident satellite measurements are from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) – Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) instrument and the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) instrument
Summary
The Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment (SOFIE) has measured nitric oxide (NO) from the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) satellite since May 2007. Gomez-Ramirez et al compared SOFIE version 1.2 NO profiles to coincident ACE measurements for altitudes from 87 to 105 km, showing negligible differences for SH SOFIE measurements (spacecraft sunset) and ∼ 18 % differences in the NH (sunrise). This is comparable to ACE, which has a similar fraction of retrieval success at these heights, no appreciable difference between spacecraft sunrise and sunset (Fig. 1b).
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