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Extension of explicit radiance observations by the Stratospheric Sounding Unit into the lower stratosphere and lower mesosphere
Author(s) -
Nash J.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49711448213
Subject(s) - radiance , stratosphere , mesosphere , depth sounding , environmental science , remote sensing , atmospheric sounding , satellite , nadir , atmospheric sciences , radiometer , advanced microwave sounding unit , meteorology , geology , physics , astronomy , oceanography
Abstract It is shown that radiance observations centred at four additional levels in the stratosphere and lower mesosphere can be synthesized utilizing the measured limb‐brightening of the radiance observations of the Stratospheric Sounding Unit (SSU). These additional radiance measurements double the vertical range of explicit radiance observations from the SSU. As a series of Stratospheric Sounding Units have been flown on the TIROS‐N series of NOAA satellites, observations of zonal mean radiance, with higher vertical resolution than has generally been obtainable with nadir‐viewing satellite radiometers, are available since 1979 from the lower stratosphere to the lower mesosphere. The additional radiances have allowed operational monitoring of the long term climatology of the lower mesosphere by means of satellite observations to commence.