Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net 1867-8610 3 4 2010 10.5194/amtd-3-3971-2010 http://www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net/3/3971/2010/ http://www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net/3/3971/2010/amtd-3-3971-2010.html http://www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net/3/3971/2010/amtd-3-3971-2010.pdf 3971 3986 2010-08-30 Observation of the exhaust plume from the space shuttle main engine using the Microwave Limb Sounder H. C. Pumphrey h.c.pumphrey@ed.ac.uk A. Lambert N. J. Livesey School of GeoSciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA A space shuttle launch deposits 700 t of water in the atmosphere. Some of this water is released into the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere where it may be directly detected by a limb sounding satellite instrument. We report measurements of water vapour plumes from shuttle launches made by the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on the Aura satellite. 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