ICON MIGHTI: Thermospheric Wind Vectors from Green Line Doppler Spectroscopy

The MIGHTI instrument on NASA's ICON satellite measures horizontal wind vectors in Earth's thermosphere. It uses two perpendicular fields of view to observe Doppler shifts in atomic oxygen emission lines at 557.7 nm (green) and 630.0 nm (red), and measures temperature via the molecular oxygen A-band around 762 nm. Data is collected by a single cooled CCD detector, with periodic on-board calibration for thermal drift.

Use Cases

• Modeling thermospheric wind patterns based on Doppler shift measurements of atomic oxygen lines.
• Analyzing temperature variations in the upper atmosphere based on spectral shape measurements of the O2 A-band.
• Validating and improving global circulation models (GCMs) for the thermosphere using wind vector data.
• Investigating space weather effects on neutral atmospheric dynamics using time-series wind observations.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a sophisticated DASH spectrometer system designed for precise Doppler shift measurement.
• Wind vectors are determined by combining observations from two perpendicular fields of view (MIGHTI A and B).
• On-board calibration sources are used to periodically quantify instrument thermal drifts.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and spatial/temporal coverage details are not provided in the metadata.
• Data is provided in BIN format, which may require specialized tools or libraries for access and processing.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

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

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 06:55:57.368363; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage from satellite orbit.