Abstract

A technique for obtaining pressure at the tangent point in an IR solar occultation experiment is described. By measuring IR absorption in bands of atmospheric CO₂ (e.g., 2.0 μm, 2.7 μm, or 4.3 μm), mean pressure values for each tangent point layer (vertical thickness 2 km or less) of the atmosphere can be obtained with rms errors of less than 3%. The simultaneous retrieval of pressure and gas concentration in a remote-sensing experiment will increase the accuracy of inverted gas concentrations and minimize the dependence of the experiment on pressure or mass path error resulting from use of climatological pressure data, satellite ephemeris, and instrument pointing accuracy.

© 1979 Optical Society of America

Pressure sounding of the middle atmosphere from ATMOS solar occultation measurements of atmospheric CO₂ absorption lines

M. C. Abrams, M. R. Gunson, L. L. Lowes, C. P. Rinsland, and R. Zander
Appl. Opt. 35(16) 2810-2820 (1996)

Solar occultation sounding of pressure and temperature using narrowband radiometers

Jae H. Park, James M. Russell, and Mary Ann H. Smith
Appl. Opt. 19(13) 2132-2139 (1980)

Refractive sounding by use of satellite solar occultation measurements including an assessment of its usefulness to the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment Program

Dale M. Ward and Benjamin M. Herman
Appl. Opt. 37(36) 8306-8317 (1998)

Inversion of stratospheric aerosol and gaseous constituents from spacecraft solar extinction data in the 0.38–1.0-μm wavelength region

W. P. Chu and M. P. McCormick
Appl. Opt. 18(9) 1404-1413 (1979)

Atmospheric CO₂ monitoring from space

Jae H. Park
Appl. Opt. 36(12) 2701-2712 (1997)