BackForwardInstrument:  TES-limb 

Instrument details
Acronym TES-limb
Full name Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer
Purpose Atmospheric chemistry.  Tracked species: CFC-11, CFC12, CH4, CO, CO2, H2O, HCl, HDO, HNO3, N2, N2O, NH3, NO, NO2, O3, OCS, SO2 and aerosol
Short description
  • Imaging interferometer, four bands, 162162 channels [see detailed characteristics below]
  • More information here
Background

New development
Scanning Technique

Each detector subtends a 2.3 km IFOV at the lowest altitude (surface); the 16 detectors simultaneously observe a range of altitudes of 37 km; the 10 transverse steps cover 23 km (horizontal). The limb modes is alternative to the cross-nadir mode
Resolution Vertical: 2.3 km in the altitude range 0-37 km; horizontal effective resolution: ~ 300 km (limb geometry)
Coverage / Cycle Limb mode: if used full time, it would provide global coverage every 3 days (for cells of 300-km side).
Mass 385 kg Power 334 W Data Rate 4.5 Mbps

 

Providing Agency NASA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2004 to 2018
Last update: 2024-09-30
Detailed characteristics
Spectral range (µm) Spectral range (cm-1) Spectral resolution (unapodised) NEΔT @ specified scene temperature
11.11-15.38 µm 650-900 cm-1 0.015 cm-1 …. K @ 220 K
8.70-12.20 µm 820-1150 cm-1 0.015 cm-1 …. K @ 220 K
5.13-9.09 µm 1100-1950 cm-1 0.015 cm-1 …. K @ 220 K
3.28-5.26 µm 1900-3050 cm-1 0.015 cm-1 …. K @ 220 K
Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Instrument classification
  • Earth observation instrument
  • Limb sounders
  • Limb sounder
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 2
  • UV/VIS/NIR/IR/MW limb sounders
  • UV/VIS/NIR/IR/MW scanning limb sounder
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • C2H2
  • C2H6
  • CFC-11
  • CFC-12
  • CH4 mole fraction
  • CO
  • CO2 mole fraction
  • COS
  • ClONO2
  • H2O
  • HCFC-22
  • HNO3
  • N2O mole fraction
  • NO
  • NO2
  • O3
  • PAN
  • SF6
  • SO2
Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Atmospheric temperature4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.MWIR and TIR spectrometry.
C2H2*4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.TIR spectrometry. C2H2 lines around 7.5 and 13.7 micrometers.
C2H6*4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.MWIR and TIR spectrometry. C2H6 lines around 3.3 and 12 micrometers.
CFC-11*4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.TIR spectrometry. CFC-11 lines around 9.2 and 11.7 micrometers.
CFC-12*4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.TIR spectrometry. CFC-12 lines around 8.8 and 10.8 micrometers.
HCFC-22*2 - very highLimited to high atmosphere.TIR spectrometry. HCFC-22 lines around 7.6, 9.0 and 12.3 micrometers
CH4 mole fraction*4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.MWIR and TIR spectrometry. CH4 lines around 4.3 and 7.7 micrometers.
ClONO2*4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.MWIR and TIR spectrometry. ClONO2 lines around 5.7, 7.7 and 12.5 micrometers.
CO*4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.MWIR spectrometry. CO lines around 4.6 micrometers.
CO2 mole fraction*2 - very highLimited to high atmosphere.MWIR and TIR spectrometry. CO2 lines around 4.3 and 15 micrometers. Limb sounding mechanical or electronical
COS*4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.MWIR and TIR spectrometry. COS lines around 4.8 and 11.6 micrometers.
H2O*4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.MWIR/TIR spectrometry in a range centred on 6.3 micrometers.
HNO3*4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.MWIR and TIR spectrometry. HNO3 lines around 5.9, 7.6 and 11.3 micrometers.
N2O mole fraction*4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.MWIR and TIR spectrometry. N2O lines around 4.5 and 7.7 micrometers.
N2O54 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.MWIR and TIR spectrometry. N2O5 lines around 5.8 and 8 micrometers.
NO*4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.MWIR spectrometry. NO lines around 5.3 micrometers.
NO2*4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.TIR spectrometry. NO2 lines around 6.1 micrometers.
O3*4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.TIR spectrometry. Ozone band around 9.7 micrometers.
PAN*4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.MWIR and TIR spectrometry. PAN lines around 5.7, 8.6 and 12.5 micrometers.
PSC occurrence4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.MWIR and TIR spectrometry. Limb sounding mechanically or electronically
SF6*4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.TIR spectrometry. SF6 lines around 10.5 micrometers.
SO2*4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.TIR spectrometry. SO2 lines around 7.3 and 8.6 micrometers.
Specific humidity4 - fairLimited to high atmosphere.MWIR and TIR spectrometry in the water vapour band around 6.3 micrometers