A 20-year review of the performance and operation of the MOPITT instrument
J. R. Drummond, Zahra Vaziri Zanjani, F. Nichitiu, Jiansheng Zou
Abstract
The MOPITT (Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere) instrument has been providing continuous measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) total column and CO vertical profile on a global scale since its launch on the Terra spacecraft on 18th of December 1999. MOPITT was one of the first correlation radiometer instruments at the time of its launch, that utilizes a combination of Length Modulating Cells (LMCs), Pressure Modulating Cells (PMCs) and Stirling cryocoolers to observe CO in the troposphere from space. MOPITT is unique in that it is the only space-borne correlation radiometer instrument in current operation that measures CO in the atmosphere. After 20 years of operation, an overview of the telemetry of MOPITT provides significant insight into the performance of one of the longest operating satellite instruments in the space environment. In this work, the engineering telemetry of MOPITT’s core subsystems is examined, with emphasis on their relation to MOPITT’s long-term successes. These instrument successes include: (1) achieving an extremely stable thermal and vibrational environment; (2) allowing for compensation of subsystem failures and anomalies by means of a redundant design; (3) maintaining stable detector performance; and (4) becoming the longest living operational instrument for measuring atmospheric CO columns and profiles.