COSPAR international reference atmosphere

The COSPAR International Reference Atmosphere (CIRA) is an empirical model of the atmosphere of Earth. It consists of a set of tables of average air pressures, altitudes and temperatures. The CIRA models are developed by the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and have been important for the planning of spaceflight.[1][2]

History

Orbit determinations and flight planning of the very first satellites proved to be more complicated than expected due to a lack of knowledge on the upper atmosphere. The Committee on Space Research therefore set up a long lasting special project to elaborate a reference model of the most important parameters of the upper atmosphere. The first CIRA appeared 1961 as CIRA1961. It was a set of tables reconsidered year for year by the Task group on the CIRA originally chaired by Hildegard Kallmann-Bijl.

Today

Presently CIRA 1986 covers the height range up to 120 km as a set of tables. In the thermosphere, above about 100 km, CIRA-86 is identical to the more complicated NASA MSIS-86 model. All models are now available on the Web. The task group takes account of more recent data at bi-annual meetings in connection to COSPAR meeting.

gollark: You can just hand out what some random people think is absolutely *needed* first, then stick the rest of everything up for public use, but that won't work either! Someone has to decide on the "needed", so you get into a planned-economy sort of situation, and otherwise... what happens when, say, the community kale farm decides they want all the remaining fertilizer, even when people don't want *that* much kale?
gollark: Planned economies, or effectively-planned-by-lots-of-voting economies, will have to implement this themselves by having everyone somehow decide where all the hundred million things need to go - and that's not even factoring in the different ways to make each thing, or the issues of logistics.
gollark: Market systems can make this work pretty well - you can sell things and use them to buy other things, and ultimately it's driven by what consumers are interested in buying.
gollark: Consider: in our modern economy, there are probably around (order of magnitude) a hundred million different sorts of thing people or organizations might need.
gollark: So you have to *vote* on who gets everything?

References
  1. COSPAR International Reference Atmosphere: 1986 (0 km to 120 km) (NASA)
  2. The COSPAR International Reference Atmosphere CIRA-86 (British Atmospheric Data Centre)

Further reading
  • K.Labitzke, J.J.Barnett, B.Edwards,Middle Atmosphere Programme, MAP Handbook16, Urbana,1985 (source).
  • Rees D., Editor, "COSPAR International Reference Atmosphere: 1986 Part 1: Thermosphere", in Adv. Space Res. Vol. 8, Nos 5&6, published by Pergamon Press, 1988 (source).
  • Rees D., J.J. BARNETT and K. LABITSKE, "COSPAR International Reference Atmosphere: 1986, Part II, Middle Atmosphere Models, Adv. Space Res., Vol. 10, No. 12, published by Pergamon Press, 1990 (source).
  • M.J.Rycroft, G.M.Keating, D.Rees,Upper Atmosphere Models and Research, Adv. Space Res.10#6,1990.
  • G.M. Keating, COSPAR International Reference Atmosphere: 1986, Part III: Trace Constituent Reference Models, Adv. Space Res., Vol. 10, Nos. 9 &10, published by Pergamon Press, 1990 (source).
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