Sub-millimeter observations of the terrestrial atmosphere during an Earth flyby of the MIRO sounder on the Rosetta spacecraft

Sub-millimeter spectra recorded by the MIRO sounder aboard the Rosetta spacecraft have been used at the time of an Earth flyby (November 2007) to check the consistency and validity of the instrumental data. High-resolution spectroscopic data were recorded in 8 channels in the vicinity of the strong water line at 557 GHz, and in a broad band continuum channel at 570 GHz. An atmospheric radiative transfer code (ARTS) and standard terrestrial atmospheres have been used to simulate the expected observational results. Differences with the MIRO spectra suggest an anomaly in the behavior of four spectroscopic channels. Further technical investigations have shown that a large part of the anomalies are associated with an instability of one of the amplifiers. The quality of the MIRO data has been further tested by inverting the spectra with an atmospheric inversion tool (Qpack) in order to derive a mesospheric temperature profile. The retrieved profile is in good agreement with the one inferred from the Earth Observing System Microwave Limb Sounder (EOS-MLS). This work illustrates the interest of validating instruments aboard planetary or cometary spacecraft by using data acquired during Earth flybys.