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Derivation of polarization from Odin/OSIRIS limb spectra
Author(s) -
McLinden Chris A.,
Haley Craig S.,
Llewellyn Edward J.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2004gl020825
Subject(s) - osiris , radiance , polarization (electrochemistry) , radiative transfer , physics , linear polarization , differential optical absorption spectroscopy , spectral line , polar , optics , remote sensing , geology , absorption (acoustics) , astronomy , chemistry , laser , botany , biology
A new technique for deriving the degree of linear polarization from limb‐scattered sunlight radiance measurements is presented and applied to Odin/OSIRIS. In this technique, the measured OSIRIS grating efficiency spectrum is fit to OSIRIS limb spectra using the differential optical absorption spectroscopy technique and the resultant fitting constant is shown to represent the difference in linear polarization between two tangent heights. The validity of this technique is confirmed using simulations from a vector limb radiative transfer model. OSIRIS scans of the difference in linear polarization from October 2003 are shown to be very sensitive to stratospheric and upper tropospheric aerosols, including background sulphates, clouds, and polar stratospheric clouds.