TIMED GUVI: Global Ultraviolet Airglow Movies at 1216 Å

GUVI measures Far Ultraviolet Airglow in five spectral bands, including the atomic HI Lyman-alpha band at 121.6 nm. The Cross-Track Scanning Spectrograph images a ground swath of 3000 km width, providing nearly contiguous global coverage with 15 orbits per day. This Level 1C Disk Version 3 file from NASA provides calibrated, geolocated, and rectified intensities for the 1216 Å wavelength band as movies of mapped images.

Use Cases

• Analyzing global patterns of hydrogen Lyman-alpha emissions based on the 1216 Å wavelength band.
• Studying atmospheric composition and dynamics based on calibrated ultraviolet airglow intensities.
• Creating visualizations of Earth's upper atmosphere based on mapped images using a Mercator projection.
• Tracking satellite orbit coverage based on the 15 orbits per day mentioned in the description.

Strengths

• Provides calibrated, geolocated, and rectified intensities for a specific ultraviolet wavelength.
• Offers nearly contiguous global coverage with a 3000 km wide ground swath per orbit.
• Data is presented as movies of mapped images, facilitating temporal analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect temporal or geographic bias inherent to the satellite's orbit and instrument.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measured by the TIMED satellite's Global Ultraviolet Imager (GUVI) instrument.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 09:43:37.626000; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage.