ENVISAT-MIPAS: instrument commissioning & early results

The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding forms part of the atmospheric payload on board ESA´s polar orbiting Envisat, launched on 1 March 2002. It is going to sense the Earth´s limb emission in a broad spectral range in the thermal infrared, allowing to detect a large number of atmospheric trace gases in a height range from the upper tropopause up to the lower mesosphere. Primary activities during the initial four weeks of in-orbit operation include the verification of the instrument´s health status and its communication with the ground segment. The subsequent CalVal phase comprises various special calibration measurements, with a focus on radiometric and spectral characterisation, as well as the line-of-sight pointing accuracy. Moreover, dedicated analyses will be carried out in order to validate critical components of the on-ground Level 1B and Level 2 processing stages and to optimise primary algorithm settings.