GOLD TDISK: Thermospheric Neutral Temperature Derived from Satellite Disk Scans

GOLD satellite daytime disk scan measurements are processed to derive the TDISK data product, representing the effective neutral temperature at approximately 150 km altitude. The algorithm fits the rotational structure of N2 Lyman-Birge-Hopfield bands using optimal estimation, extending methods from the HITS instrument. The dataset is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Model thermospheric temperature variations based on derived TDISK values.
• Validate atmospheric models using satellite-derived neutral temperature data.
• Study the signal-to-noise ratio improvements of GOLD measurements over previous instruments.
• Analyze daily temperature trends from approximately 68 daily disk scan measurements.
• Investigate the rotational structure of N2 LBH bands for atmospheric composition analysis.

Strengths

• Derived from GOLD satellite measurements with a higher signal-to-noise ratio than the HITS instrument.
• Algorithm has heritage from previously published methods (Aksnes et al., 2006; Krywonos et al., 2012).
• Provides daily coverage with approximately 68 disk scan measurements per day in nominal operation.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is provided in BIN and HTML formats, which may require specialized tools for analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Derived from GOLD satellite daytime disk scan measurements using an optimal estimation retrieval algorithm.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 07:10:51.120372; freshness should be verified.