Vertical Distribution of Lower Tropospheric \hbox Derived From Diffuse Solar Radiation Measurements: A Geometrical Retrieval Approach

A geometrical method to determine the vertical distribution of a trace gas in the lower troposphere is presented. The technique is based on quasi-simultaneous measurements of diffuse solar radiation with spectrometric equipment observing the atmosphere from different viewing directions and a measure...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing 2014-08, Vol.52 (8), p.4846-4857
Main Authors: Masieri, Samuele, Palazzi, Elisa, Ravegnani, Fabrizio, Bortoli, Daniele, Petritoli, Andrea, Premuda, Margherita, Kostadinov, Ivan, Pisoni, Enrico, Carnevale, Claudio, Volta, Marialuisa, Giovanelli, Giorgio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atmospheric measurements
Geophysical measurements
Instruments
Optical scattering
Optical variables measurement
Pollution measurement
pollution measurements
remote sensing
Solar radiation
spectral analysis
spectroscopy
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Summary:A geometrical method to determine the vertical distribution of a trace gas in the lower troposphere is presented. The technique is based on quasi-simultaneous measurements of diffuse solar radiation with spectrometric equipment observing the atmosphere from different viewing directions and a measurement of a distant lamp. Differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) algorithms are applied to retrieve the slant column densities (SCDs) of the analyzed compound. A recursive procedure involving the set of observed SCDs, the geometry of measurement, and several offline radiative transfer simulations provides the vertical profile of the target trace gas. This technique is applied to nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) SCDs, and the results are compared to the output of the modeling system Gas Aerosol Modeling Evaluation System (GAMES). The correlation coefficient between the DOAS and GAMES NO 2 concentration profiles is 0.7 and shows a nonnegligible variability as a function of altitude and sky conditions.
ISSN:0196-2892
1558-0644
DOI:10.1109/TGRS.2013.2285282