Description: Infrared limb emission measurements of aerosol in the troposphere and stratosphere

This title appears in the Scientific Report : 2016

Infrared limb emission measurements of aerosol in the troposphere and stratosphere

Altitude-resolved aerosol detection in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) is a challenging task for remote sensing instruments. Infrared limb emission measurements provide vertically resolved global measurements at day- and nighttime in the UTLS. For high-spectral-resolution infrare...

Personal Name(s):	Griessbach, Sabine (Corresponding author)
	Hoffmann, Lars / Spang, Reinhold / von Hobe, Marc / Müller, Rolf / Riese, Martin
Contributing Institute:	Stratosphäre; IEK-7 Jülich Supercomputing Center; JSC
Published in:	Atmospheric measurement techniques, 9 (2016) 9, S. 4399 - 4423
Imprint:	Katlenburg-Lindau Copernicus 2016
DOI:	10.5194/amt-9-4399-2016
Document Type:	Journal Article
Research Program:	Composition and dynamics of the upper troposphere and middle atmosphere Computational Science and Mathematical Methods
Link:	OpenAccess OpenAccess
	Publikationsportal JuSER

Please use the identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/12343 in citations.
Please use the identifier: http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4399-2016 in citations.

Altitude-resolved aerosol detection in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) is a challenging task for remote sensing instruments. Infrared limb emission measurements provide vertically resolved global measurements at day- and nighttime in the UTLS. For high-spectral-resolution infrared limb instruments we present here a new method to detect aerosol and separate between ice and non-ice particles. The method is based on an improved aerosol–cloud index that identifies infrared limb emission spectra affected by non-ice aerosol or ice clouds. For the discrimination between non-ice aerosol and ice clouds we employed brightness temperature difference correlations. The discrimination thresholds for this method were derived from radiative transfer simulations (including scattering) and Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS)/Envisat measurements obtained in 2011. We demonstrate the value of this approach for observations of volcanic ash and sulfate aerosol originating from the Grímsvötn (Iceland, 64° N), Puyehue–Cordón Caulle (Chile, 40° S), and Nabro (Eritrea, 13° N) eruptions in May and June 2011 by comparing the MIPAS volcanic aerosol detections with Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) volcanic ash and SO2 measurements.