How do I extract geophysical profile data from MIPAS L2 products?
General MIPAS profiles as retrieved in the pT and subsequent VMR (volume mixing ratio) processing stages are organised in different measurement data sets (MDS) within a product file: MDS#1: pT & height correction profiles MDS#2: target species#1 (= H2O) VMR profiles + concentrations, column densities … MDS#7: target species#6 (= NO2) VMR profiles + concentrations, column densities Because all these data sets contain variable size records a so-called ‘structure ADS’ is included in each L2 product. This ADS defines general parameters from which length&byte offset of individual records can immediately be computed (e.g., no. of sweeps/limb heights per elevation scan, no. of retrieved profile points for pt, VMR …). The limb tangent heights (‘engineering’ heights) of a given elevation scan are extracted from the L1B input data and reported in the scan information annotation data set (‘scaninfoADS’), field#6. Because the limb heights are known only with limited accuracy corrections to the