GOLD: Thermospheric Oxygen-to-Nitrogen Column Ratio Measurements

GOLD daytime disk scan measurements derive the ratio of thermospheric oxygen column abundance relative to nitrogen, abbreviated ON2. The retrieval algorithm uses the ratio of O I 135.6 nm and N2 LBH band intensities measured by the GOLD instrument on the dayside disk. The dataset is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Model thermospheric composition variations based on derived O/N2 ratios.
• Validate satellite remote sensing algorithms using the documented retrieval method.
• Study the relationship between solar zenith angle and atmospheric composition using the look-up table derived from the AURIC model.
• Analyze daily atmospheric changes based on approximately 68 disk scan measurements per day.

Strengths

• Algorithm heritage spans several decades, documented in multiple peer-reviewed publications.
• Retrieval uses the full spectrum to maximize signal-to-noise ratio and eliminate contaminating emission lines.
• The parameter is defined at a standard reference N2 depth of 1017 cm-2 to minimize uncertainty.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Derived from GOLD instrument daytime disk scan measurements using a retrieval algorithm based on the AURIC atmospheric radiance model.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 07:32:00.271759; freshness should be verified.