A review of 9-year performance and operation of the MOPITT instrument

The MOPITT (Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere) instrument has provided more than nine years of global carbon monoxide (CO) measurements on a continuous basis since its launch aboard the Terra Spacecraft on December 18th, 1999. This paper gives an overview of the core sub-system performance and major issues of the in-flight instrument over the mission period. Some of the instrument anomalies are also discussed. The major successes are: (1) the concept of using a combination of correlation systems such as Length Modulated Cells (LMCs) and Pressure Modulated Cells (PMCs) to retrieve CO profiles in the troposphere; (2) the redundant design in the instrumentation which was crucial for coping with unexpected in-flight anomalies and for continuing the mission in the case of component failure; (3) the thermal environment on orbit that is so stable that some calibration procedures are not necessary; and (4) the recent production of CO total column retrieved from the MOPITT 2.3 μm channel.