The High-Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS) experiment on AURA

Space-based experiments have contributed much to our knowledge of the stratosphere in recent years. These observations have been characterized by large horizontal or vertical scales, leaving a range of unobserved phenomena at smaller scales. This is especially true at the tropopause, the boundary between the troposphere and stratosphere, where rapid changes in the vertical in temperature and composition have been unobserved on a global basis. The HIRDLS instrument has been designed to address these issues. HIRDLS is a 21 channel limb scanning infrared radiometer designed to make global measurements at smaller vertical and horizontal scales than have been previously observed, from pole to pole, at altitudes of 8-80 km. This paper will present an overview of the HIRDLS science and instrument, as well as the data retrieval process. It will serve as an introduction to the series of subsequent papers dealing with the calibration and other aspects of the experiment.