Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) Vertical profiles of Atmospheric Components from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS L3) Instrument and NERC Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) Prototype Water Vapour Data

The Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) is a satellite-borne instrument making limb sounding measurements of atmospheric composition at microwave frequencies. It was built by an instrument team based at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) on the 12th September 1991. It began collecting data on 19th September 1991. The PI was Joe Waters.

The instrument measures thermal emission from the Earth's limb, from which vertical profiles of chlorine monoxide (ClO), ozone (O3), water vapour (H2O) sulphur dioxide (SO2) and atmospheric temperature are derived. HNO3 profiles are also available for some periods in the Version 4 data.

The data coverage extends from 80°S to 80°N, but at any one time this is restricted to 34°S to 80°N or 34°N to 80°S. In the vertical, measurements are made between approximately 10 and 60 km, from October 1991 to June 1997.

Also available as part of this archive are the prototype water vapour profiles from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) data, retrieved at the University of Edinburgh (NERC funded project). Data generally cover wider altitude range than "official" MLS version 4 retrievals and are available at a higher vertical resolution. Coverage is from September 1991 to April 1993.

Date (Publication): 2006-12-10T02:16:35

Date (Creation): 2006-12-10T02:16:35

Citation identifier: https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/2e4c98d91a9237c128c0acbf3e11ce7f

Citation identifier: NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC) / 2e4c98d91a9237c128c0acbf3e11ce7f

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA JPL)		unknown	Author
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)		unknown	Author
Unavailable	Waters, J.	Unavailable	Author
Unavailable	Harwood, R.	Unavailable	Author
Unavailable	Pumphrey, Hugh	Unavailable	Author
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	Custodian
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	Distributor
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	pointofContact
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	Publisher

Maintenance and update frequency: Unknown

Update scope: Series

Keywords

Chemistry
UARS
MLS L3

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

atmospheric conditions

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Please contact the data centre for assistance on accessing data from this dataset collection.

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Under the following licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, appropriate use of these data may fall under any use. This message is intended as guidance, always read the full licence. When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.

Spatial representation type: Grid

Language: English

Topic category

Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere

Begin date: 1991-09-18T23:00:00

End date: 1997-06-29T23:00:00

Unique resource identifier: WGS 84

Distribution format

Name	Version
Contact data centre for format details.

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	Distributor

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/2e4c98d91a9237c128c0acbf3e11ce7f	CEDA Data Catalogue Page

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://mls.jpl.nasa.gov/	MLS at JPL Homesite

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://artefacts.ceda.ac.uk/badc_datadocs/mls/references.html	BADC Doc: MLS List of References

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://artefacts.ceda.ac.uk/badc_datadocs/mls/documents.html	BADC Doc: Indexed MLS documentation

Hierarchy level: Series

Conformance result

Title: Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Date (Publication): 2010-12-08

Statement: Please see data lineage statements for each dataset within this collection for data lineage details.

Metadata

File identifier: 2e4c98d91a9237c128c0acbf3e11ce7f XML

Metadata language: English

Character set: UTF8

Hierarchy level: Series

Hierarchy level name: series

Date stamp: 2026-02-25T03:26:34

Metadata standard name: UK GEMINI

Metadata standard version: 2.3

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	Point of contact

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