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Algorithm Stability and the Long-Term Geospace Data Record from TIMED/SABER
  • +6
  • Martin G. Mlynczak,
  • Benjamin T. Marshall,
  • Rolando R. Garcia,
  • Linda A Hunt,
  • Jia Yue,
  • V. Lynn Harvey,
  • Manuel Lopez Puertas,
  • Christopher J. Mertens,
  • James M Russell
Martin G. Mlynczak
NASA Langley Research Center

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Benjamin T. Marshall
GATS, Inc.
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Rolando R. Garcia
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
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Linda A Hunt
Science Systems and Applications, Inc.
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Jia Yue
Goddard Space Flight Center
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V. Lynn Harvey
University of Colorado Boulder
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Manuel Lopez Puertas
Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, CSIC
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Christopher J. Mertens
NASA Langley Research Center
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James M Russell
Hampton University
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Abstract

The ability of satellite instruments to accurately observe long-term changes in atmospheric temperature depends on many factors including the absolute accuracy of the measurement, the stability of the calibration of the instrument, the stability of the satellite orbit, and the stability of the numerical algorithm that produces the temperature data. We present an example of algorithm instability recently discovered in the temperature dataset from the SABER instrument on the NASA TIMED satellite. The instability resulted in derived temperatures that were substantially colder than anticipated from mid-December 2019 to mid-2022. This algorithm-induced change in temperature over one to two years corresponded to the expected change over several decades from increasing anthropogenic CO2. This paper highlights the importance of algorithm stability in developing Geospace Data Records (GDRs) for Earth’s mesosphere and lower thermosphere. A corrected version (Version 2.08) of the temperatures from SABER is described.