Feasibility of a space-borne terahertz heterodyne spectrometer for atomic oxygen and temperature in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere

Hansen, Peder Bagge; Wienold, Martin; Hübers, Heinz-Wilhelm

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-5749-2025

Articles | Volume 18, issue 20

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-5749-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-5749-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 20

Research article

|

23 Oct 2025

Research article |

| 23 Oct 2025

Feasibility of a space-borne terahertz heterodyne spectrometer for atomic oxygen and temperature in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere

Peder Bagge Hansen, Martin Wienold, and Heinz-Wilhelm Hübers

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-5749-2025-supplement

Data sets

Simulated limb atomic oxygen spectra (2.1 THz and 4.7 THz) Peder Bagge Hansen et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17395528

Model code and software

rilma/pyHWM14: Official release of the HWM14 wrapper in Python Ronald Ilma https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.240890

pymsis Greg Lucas https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8403883

Short summary

In this numerical study, we assess the feasibility of a satellite-borne instrument for measuring the atomic oxygen concentration and temperature in the upper atmosphere by detecting its emission in the terahertz range. We simulate the measurement scenario considering technological feasibility and state-of-the-art atmosphere models. We find that both atomic oxygen and temperature could be accurately measured from an altitude of 100 km up to at least 200 km with such an instrument.