Abstract A versatile inversion code has been developed which is capable of retrieving profiles of aerosol size distribution and concentration from multi-wavelength measurements of either the scattered radiance from the earth's sunlit atmosphere in both the limb-viewing mode and downward-viewing mode, or the extinction of direct solar radiation by the earth's atmosphere. The inversion code in its present form is a composite of three sub-codes corresponding to the aforementioned three measurement modes. A description of these codes will be given. The inversion code treats the inverse problem of radiative transfer through a scattering and absorbing aerosol atmosphere, which is vertically inhomogeneous, spherical, and which taxes into account multiple scattering and surface albedo effects. Results of retrievals are discussed for vertical profiles of aerosol size distribution, concentration, and real and imaginary parts of the refractive index (assuming spherical particles) from simulated measurements of the profiles of limb scattered radiance and atmospheric extinction (e.g., SAM II and SAGE), and for the total aerosol loading from measurements of upwelling radiance (e.g., Landsat and GOES series). In addition, we discuss the sensitivity of retrieved results to different parameters, such as, percentage random error, initial guess, surface albedo, etc.
Retrieval of aerosol characteristics from scattering and extinction measurements
Advances in Space Research ; 2 , 5 ; 55-64
1983-01-01
10 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English