Identification

Title

On the inversion of limb radiance measurements. I: Temperature and thickness

Abstract

The calculation of limb radiance as a function of tangent height is shown to require the vertical distribution of temperature and the pressure at one level. Conversely, given the limb radiance curve and the pressure corresponding to one tangent point, it is possible to determine the temperature profile as a function of height relative to the given level, using an iterative technique. If the given pressure is incorrect, there will be systematic errors in the inferred temperatures. This feature may he used to determine the correct pressure by requiring that temperatures inferred from measurements in two spectral regions of differing opacities agree. Results of inverting synthesized realistic data are presented. The data include the effects of water vapor and ozone contamination of the carbon dioxide signal, instrument field of view, and random and systematic noise for real atmospheres having small-scale vertical structure. Results indicate that the temperature may be obtained from the tropopause to 60 km with an rms error <3K. The thickness between the 10- and 1-mb surfaces may also he determined to ±50 m. For measurements spaced 1000 km apart in mid-latitudes, this will yield thermal winds to ±7 m sec−1. Contemplated improvements in the alogrithm and the likelihood of achieving smaller noise figures than those used in the study indicate that better temperature and thickness accuracies and inferences to higher altitudes should he attainable with a real instrument.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7df6v90

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

1971-11-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact