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Direct retrieval of stratospheric CO 2 infrared cooling rate profiles from AIRS data
Author(s) -
Feldman D. R.,
Liou K. N.,
Yung Y. L.,
Tobin D. C.,
Berk A.
Publication year - 2006
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 - 10.1029/2005gl024680
Subject(s) - atmospheric infrared sounder , radiance , environmental science , radiative transfer , remote sensing , infrared , atmospheric radiative transfer codes , inversion (geology) , stratosphere , radiative cooling , thermal infrared , meteorology , atmospheric sciences , physics , optics , geology , paleontology , structural basin
We expand upon methods for retrieving thermal infrared cooling rate profiles, originally developed by Liou and Xue (1988) through application to the inversion of the stratospheric cooling rate produced by carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and a formal description of the associated error budget. Specifically, we infer lower‐ and mid‐stratospheric cooling rates from the CO 2 ν 2 band on the basis of selected spectral channels and available data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS). In order to establish the validity of our results, we compare our retrievals to those calculated from a forward radiative transfer program using retrieved temperature data from spectra taken by the Scanning High‐Resolution Interferometer Sounder (S‐HIS) on two aircraft campaigns: the Mixed‐Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (MPACE) and the Aura Validation Experiment (AVE) both in Fall, 2004. Reasonable and consistent comparisons are illustrated, revealing that spectral radiance data taken by high‐resolution infrared sounders can be used to determine the vertical distribution of radiative cooling due to CO 2 .