Measurement of mesopause temperature using the mesospheric airglow spectrum photometer (MASP)

Abstract This work presents a practical spectrophotometer based on passive remote sensing, the mesospheric airglow spectrum photometer (MASP). Also presented is a detailed description of its data processing. The MASP measures the rotational temperature from nighttime airglow emission of the O 2 (0–1) band. All components of the MASP are commercial standard components, making it cost-effective and easy to maintain and update. The housing of the MASP has excellent thermal insulation and is equipped with a small semiconductor thermoelectric cooler (TEC) air conditioner that guarantees a constant temperature for the instrument. The calibration of the instrument parameters and the forward model simulation of synthetic spectra are described in detail. Moreover, the data processing is adjusted according to the characteristics of MASP, especially for the removal of background continuum. Observation results show that the MASP is capable of measuring disturbances caused by a small-scale gravity wave and by tidal waves with periods of 4 or 8 h. Comparisons with the NRLMSISE-00 atmospheric model also show a more consistent trend of averaged daily temperature variation. Accordingly, the MASP is suitable for installation at multiple stations to perform long-term and stable synchronous network observation.