ICON MIGHTI: Thermospheric Temperature Data from Satellite Remote Sensing

Data from the Michelson Interferometer for Global High-resolution Thermospheric Imaging (MIGHTI) instrument on the ICON satellite. It measures atmospheric temperature in the lower thermosphere by sampling the molecular oxygen A-band at five specific wavelengths (754.1 nm, 760.0 nm, 762.8 nm, 765.2 nm, and 780.1 nm) using a cooled CCD detector. The dataset is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling thermospheric temperature variations based on multi-wavelength spectral sampling.
• Calibrating satellite instrument thermal drift based on the described on-board calibration sources.
• Analyzing atmospheric spectral signatures based on the O2 A-band shape measurements.
• Retrieving atmospheric physical parameters based on simultaneous multi-channel photometric data.

Strengths

• Data is sourced from a dedicated NASA satellite instrument (MIGHTI on ICON).
• Temperature retrieval uses a multi-channel method with five specific filter wavelengths to account for instrumental drift.
• Instrument includes on-board calibration sources for periodic thermal drift quantification.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the MIGHTI instrument on the ICON mission.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 06:57:21.392691; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage from satellite orbit.