MSIS-86 (Mass Spectrometer - Incoherent Scatter) Model of the Upper Atmosphere

MSIS-86 now deprecated, please use MSISE-90 instead

This is an empirical model of the temperature and composition of the atmosphere at heights between 85 and 700km. It is based on mass spectrometer data from various satellites and on incoherent scatter radar data from several sites. Full details are given in the paper by A E Hedin which was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol 92, pages 4649-4662 (May 1987).

The program implemented here allows you to supply a range and step size for either latitude, longitude, height or time. The values for the non-varying parameters are taken from the minimum for each of the other parameters.

The geomagnetic and solar conditions can be specified in one of two ways:

by choosing a date, in which case the necessary values of Ap and solar radio flux are retrieved from the WDC C1 databases for that day, or
by giving values for Ap, the 3-month mean of F10.7 and the daily value of F10.7.

Note that it is always necessary to provide a month and day so that MSIS can take account of seasonal effects.

The program produces for each time, altitude, latitude, longitude a table giving temperature, densities for N₂, O, He, A, O₂, H, N, and total mass density.

Always supply a month and day to allow for seasonal effects
Month	Day
For a particular year (will retrieve Ap and F10.7)
Year
For particular geomagnetic/solar conditions
Ap	3-month mean F10.7	daily F10.7

By Latitude :: Latitudes (-90,+90) : Minimum Maximum Step
By Longitude :: If the minimum longitude exceeds the maximum then the longitude range selected is that which spans the Greenwich meridian.
Longitudes (0,360) : Minimum Maximum Step
By Altitude :: Minimum altitude is 85km :
Minimum Maximum Step
By Time :: Time in hours plus step size :
Minimum Maximum Step

The data can be output to the screen in table format, or written to a file for FTP.

Tabular		File