Atmospheric SoundingTemperature and water vapor profiling

Atmospheric soundingAtmospheric sounding is retrieving vertical profiles of temperature trace-gas concentrations, especially water vapor and ozone.

February 17, 2003

http://orbit-net.nesdis.noaa.gov/goes/soundings/skewt/html/skewhome.html

http://orbit-net.nesdis.noaa.gov/goes/soundings/skewt/html/skewhome.html

dzdz

zdzTBLL

z

z

0

)()]([00

Scwartzchild’s Equation – RTE for no-scattering

L0: radiance emerging from the Earth’s surface

(z): vertical transmittance from height z to space.

T(z): vertical profile of temperature

B[T(z)]: Planck function profile.

Weighting function - W

Wdz

zd

)(

Idealised transmittance profiles and weighting functions at two frequencies with different absorption coefficients. Vertical coordinate: scale height = - loge(pressure).

Left-illustrating the attenuation of upwelling radiation emitted from three heights in the atmosphere. Right-the corresponding vertical profile of the contribution to the emission to space.

TOVS normalized weighting functions (from Smith et al. 1979)

TOVS normalized weighting functions (from Smith et al. 1979)

AMSU normalised weighting functions.

A selection of weighting functions for several bands of the interferometer proposed for the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) instrument.