Global Long-Term MIPAS Data Processing: Some Aspects of the Dynamics of the Atmosphere from Lower Stratosphere to Lower Thermosphere

The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) is a Fourier transform mid-infrared limb scanning high resolution spectrometer which allows for simultaneous measurements of more than 30 atmospheric trace species related to atmospheric chemistry and global change. MIPAS is operated by ESA since mid of 2002 and the mission will be extended through 2013. At the Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK), MIPAS spectra are used for retrieval of altitude-resolved profiles of abundances of trace species of the atmosphere. These 4-D trace gas distributions are used for the assessment of e.g. stratospheric ozone chemistry, stratospheric cloud physics and heterogeneous chemistry, tropospheric stratospheric exchange, intercontinental transport of pollutants in the upper troposphere, mesospheric stratospheric exchange, effects of solar proton events on stratospheric chemistry, and climate-chemistry models. Over the last year the XC4000 supercomputer has become a major contributor to the total amount of MIPAS data processed at IMK, and hence has helped a lot in filling the gap which results from ESA’s failure to produce altitude-resolved species profiles for the time since March of 2004. Due to the extremely low administration/communication overhead within the processing system, up to 800 processors could be used (and have been many times) in parallel, 50% of the projects used more than 200 processors in parallel. In the last year the processing of MIPAS data on the XC4000 became more focussed on species which are strongly influenced by NLTE (non-local thermodynamic equilibrium). Two corresponding examples of scientific exploitation of MIPAS data are given. 1. The distribution of CO, which essentially behaves like a tracer, from upper troposphere to mesosphere allows to gain insight into several aspects of middle atmosphere dynamics. 2. The evolution of the temperature field from stratosphere to lower thermosphere hints at a dynamic coupling of these altitude regions via planetary wave activity during a major warming event.