During the
recent two years, our studies have involved both the mesospheric and
stratospheric mission of Odin.Responsible: Jacek Stegman, Jörg Gumbel, Bodil Karlsson, Stefan Lossow, Tomas Waldemarsson, Georg Witt
The Swedish
Odin satellite was launched on 20 February 2001 after more
than 10 years of design and preparatory work. Odin-related studies take
up a major part our middle atmosphere research. We are involved in both
instruments on the satellite, i.e. the Optical Spectrograph and Infrared
Imaging System (OSIRIS) and the Sub-Millimetre Receiver (SMR).
During the
recent two years, our studies have involved both the mesospheric and
stratospheric mission of Odin.
A particular focus of our research is on mesospheric water, in the form of both water vapor and noctilucent clouds. A new project has been started with the aim to study global climatology of the metal layers in the mesopause region with the help of OSIRIS sodium dayglow measurements. We also continue our engagement in the further development of stratospheric UV-Vis retrieval algorithms for the OSIRIS instrument.
The Odin mission involves close co-operation with a number of scientific groups from the other participating nations – Canada, France and Finland. Odin is the third scientific satellite in a series of Swedish small satellite projects supported by Swedish National Space Board and other national agencies. The main scientific goal of the Odin project is to explore the middle and upper atmosphere and interstellar medium using new, unexplored areas of the electromagnetic spectrum, around wavelengths of 0.5 mm and 3 mm. The instruments used are a submillimetre/millimetre receiver (SMR) and an optical instrument OSIRIS (Optical Spectrometer and InfraRed Imaging System). The latter is used exclusively for atmospheric studies and provides complementary information on the atmosphere using UV, visible and infrared wavelengths. For aeronomy Odin follows the Earth limb, operating alternatively in one of the three limb scanning modes: stratospheric (7-60 km, basic stratospheric mode of operation, every 3 rd day), stratospheric-mesospheric (7-110 km, every 9th day or every 2nd-3rd day during NLC season) and summer mesospheric (65-110 km, on campaign basis), scanning up and down the Earth's limb at a rate of 0.75 km/s.
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Last updated: January 11, 2006
Jörg Gumbel (gumbel@misu.su.se)