MSISE-90 (Mass Spectrometer - Incoherent Scatter) Model of the Upper Atmosphere

This is an empirical model of the temperature and composition of the atmosphere at heights between 0 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 papers by A E Hedin which were published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol 92 (A5), pages 4649-4662 (May 1987) and Vol 96 (A2), pages 1159 -1172 (February 1991).

UKSSDC Implementation

The program implemented here allows you to supply a range and step size for either latitude, longitude, height or time for the geomagnetic conditions prevalent for a particular date. The necessary values of Ap and solar radio flux are retrieved from the UKSSDC databases for a particular day. The values for the non-varying parameters are taken from the minimum for each of the other parameters.

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.

Input parameters Year : Month : Day :

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 0km :
Minimum Maximum Step
By Time :: Time (UT) 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