Release of a new LYRA product: O+N₂ Earth atmosphere number densities

The PROBA2 team is happy to announce the release of a new data product: the Earth atmosphere O+N2 number density profiles. These profiles are derived from solar occultation measurements by LYRA and are available at /lyra/data/EarthAtmosphere/. They are produced daily from beginning of December till end of January and are based on the backup unit (unit 3) measurements to limit the impact of instrumental degradation. The O+N2 number density profiles cover altitudes ranging from 150 to 400km, a region of the atmosphere that has been historically difficult to measure. These data are therefore ideal to help validate atmosphere models or to characterize the thermospheric variability due to space weather events, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections. This new data product is the result of a fruitful collaboration with Dr. E. Thiemann from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, Colorado in the frame of the PROBA2 Guest Investigator Program. More information is available at http://proba2.oma.be/data/lyra/OplusN2