ICON MIGHTI-A: Thermospheric Wind and Temperature Measurements from Space

NASA's ICON satellite MIGHTI-A instrument provides measurements of horizontal wind speed and direction in the Earth's thermosphere. The instrument uses Doppler spectroscopy on atomic oxygen emissions at 630.0 nm and 557.7 nm to derive winds and photometry of the molecular oxygen A-band around 762 nm for temperature. Data from this viewing direction, combined with a perpendicular view from MIGHTI-B, allows for the reconstruction of the full wind vector.

Use Cases

• Modeling thermospheric circulation patterns based on horizontal wind vector data.
• Studying space weather effects on the upper atmosphere based on temperature and wind measurements.
• Validating and improving global atmospheric models based on high-resolution remote sensing data.
• Analyzing wave propagation and energy transfer in the thermosphere based on Doppler shift observations.

Strengths

• Data is produced by a field-widened, temperature-compensated DASH spectrometer, suggesting precise measurements.
• Uses on-board calibration sources to periodically quantify thermal drifts, which may improve data stability.
• Signals for different atmospheric lines are detected on a single, cooled CCD, which may reduce instrumental artifacts.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data format includes BIN files, which may require specialized tools for access and processing.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Remote sensing via the MIGHTI instrument on the ICON satellite, using Doppler Asymmetric Spatial Heterodyne (DASH) spectroscopy.

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 06:56:58.211890; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage from a satellite platform.