Thermospheric Response to Substorms as Observed by the SABER Instrument

The climate of the thermosphere is controlled in part by cooling to space driven by infrared radiation from nitric oxide (NO, 5.3μm), carbon dioxide (CO2, 15μm), and atomic oxygen (O, 63μm). The Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instrument on the Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite measures the vertical distribution of infrared radiation emitted by various atmospheric gases (ozone, water vapor, as well as nitric oxide, and carbon dioxide), providing important information about the radiation budget in the upper atmosphere. SABER was launched in December 2001 and began making measurements in January 2002. From these radiance measurements, we have more than 15 years of derived scan fluxes and global daily infrared power and energy radiated by NO and CO2 in the thermosphere.