Abstract

To date, retrieval of remotely sounded data from the middle atmosphere has usually been carried out on a profile by profile basis, using climatology or sometimes a previous nearby retrieval as a priori data. For weather forecasting purposes in the troposphere and lower stratosphere, it is possible to use forecast profiles as a priori, and this is sometimes done. Once retrieved, profiles are normally gridded in a relatively simple-minded way for the middle atmosphere studies, or assimilated as profiles in the case of meteorological analysis although recently assimilation has begun to be be used in the middle atmosphere for UARS profile data e.g. by Swinbank and O’Neill (1994) and by others. The topic to be discussed here is the assimilation of radiances from middle atmosphere remote sounders into atmospheric models, as a means of improving the retrieved product. This has been mentioned as a possibility by many authors describing assimilation, but has not been attempted to any great extent. One example in the meteorological analysis case is the assimilation of TOVS radiance by Andersson et al (1994).

© 1995 Optical Society of America