Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER): Instrument and Science Measurement Description

Abstract

SABER (Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry) is a 10-channel infrared radiometer that is one of four instruments on the NASA TIMED (Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics) satellite mission to study the structure, energetics, chemistry, and dynamics of the Earth’s mesosphere and lower thermosphere. The TIMED spacecraft was launched into a 625 km circular polar orbit (74.1º inclination) via a Boeing Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base on 7 December 2001. SABER continues to operate nominally and collect data routinely as it has for over 21 years. Over 2,200 peer-reviewed journal articles have been published worldwide using SABER data. A list of these articles is included in the Supporting Information accompanying this paper. The Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) of Utah State University designed, fabricated, and calibrated the SABER instrument in close collaboration with NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton University, and Global Atmospheric Technologies and Science (GATS). This paper provides a detailed technical description of the SABER instrument, including performance specifications and observed instrument performance.

Nitric Oxide Concentration: A New Data Set Derived From SABER Measurements

“…The SABER instrument is on board the NASA TIMED satellite and has been taking measurements since January 2002, with a vertical resolution of approximately 2 km (Esplin et al, 2023;Russell et al, 1999). The latitude coverage of the SABER instrument shifts between 83°N-53°S and 53°N-83°S, due to a ∼60-day yaw cycle of the TIMED satellite.…”

“…Figure 2a shows the comparison of the global annual average SABER v2.0 NO emission rate and new NO emission rate for the solar maximum year 2014 and the solar minimum year 2009. The black dashed line denotes the noise equivalent NO emission rate as 5.8 × 10 11 W/m 3 which is derived from the measured noise equivalent radiance of 1.48 × 10 6 W/m 2 /sr (Esplin et al, 2023). The newly derived SABER NO emission rate is smaller than the original NO emission rate for both the solar maximum year and solar minimum year as expected, because the new unfilter factor is smaller than the original one as shown in Figure 1.…”