Display Status:
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.
Collection Item Summary:
The Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) was one of ten scientific instruments on the Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS), a NASA project operative from 1991-2005. The satellite's suite of instruments researched the “greenhouse effect” (the impact of increased CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere) and the ozone hole over Antarctica. A central element of NASA's "Mission to Planet Earth", UARS provided critical data on the chemical and physical interactions between Earth's upper and lower strata of atmosphere.
The MLS's Processing Board/Filter Bank processed data received through the Ghz Receiver, looking for the spectra signatures of key chemicals, such as chlorine monoxide, a molecule that breaks down and depletes atmospheric ozone.
NASA transferred this object to the museum in 2016.