First Observation Data from the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave

Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES)

M. Shiotani (Kyoto Univ.), M. Takayanagi (JAXA), Y. Murayama (NICT),M. Koike (Univ. of Tokyo), K. Kikuchi (JAXA), Y. Kasai (NICT),

T. Nagahama (Nagoya Univ.), T. Sano (JAXA), SMILES mission team

JEM/SMILES Mission(JEM/SMILES: Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder designed to be aboard the Japanese Experiment Module on ISS)

1. Demonstration of superconductive mixer and 4-K mechanical cooler for the submillimeter limb-emission sounding in space

2. Observation on atmospheric minor constituents in the stratosphere

[SIS Mixer] RF: 640 GHz, IF: 11-13 GHz; Junction: Nb/AlOx/Nb, ~7 kA/cm2; Fabricated at Nobeyama RO

[Mechanical Cooler] Two-stage Stirling and J-T; 20mW @4K, 200mW @20K, 1000mW @100K; Power Consumption: <300 W; Mass: 90 kg

[Standard Products]– 1 scan ： O3, HCl, ClO, CH3CN, O3 isotopes, HOCl, HNO3

– Multi-scan ： HO2, BrO

[Research Products] volcanic SO2, H2O2, UTH, Cirrus Clouds 　

JEM/SMILES Payload

The SMILES was carried by the H-IIB with the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) (Sep. 11); the HTV was attached to the ISS (Sep. 18); the SMILES was attached to the JEM (Sep. 25) (All dates in JST)

SMILES

•Antenna: 40 cm x 20 cm•Weight: < 500 kg•Mission Life: 1 year

SMILES Observation

High sensitivity in detecting atmospheric limb emission of the submillimeter wave range (640GHz)

Vertical profiling (about 3km resolution) from JEM/ISS with latitudinal coverage of 65N to 38S

Measurements on several radical species crucial to the ozone chemistry (normal O3, isotope O3, ClO, HCl, HOCl, BrO, HO2 …)

Seeking possible collaboration with validation sites where coordinated measurements can be done.

ISS orbit (blue) and SMILES observation points (red)

SMILES observation performance

Test observation by SMILES

• September 26: Main power on – checkout of the hardware

• September 28: Cooler attained 4K• October 10: First manual observations (only a

few profiles were available)• October 12: Started continuous observations

though still in c/o phase (up October 17)• October 22: Restarted test observations

Band A spectrum

Band B Spectrum

Band C Spectrum

Retrieval examaple for O3

Retrieval example for HCl

Ozone distribution at 28km

Lat.-height section of zonal-mean O3

Comparison with MLS O3

Lat.-height section of zonal-mean ClO

Lat.-height section of zonal-mean HCl

Lat.-height section of zonal-mean BrO

SUMMARY

• SMILES was successfully attached to ISS, and got 4K stage without any big hardware problem.

• It has been performing very well as expected.• Reasonable retrieval results are coming out.• We need further comparison with reference

data and validation data to derive more stable and confident retrieval results.