Retrieval of pressure and temperature from MIPAS-ENVISAT limb emission spectra

The accurate knowledge of pressure and temperature profiles is a precondition for the retrieval of race gas profiles from limb emission measurements. A method was investigated which allows the pressure and temperature retrieval from limb emission spectra as expected to be measured by the MIPAS-ENVISAT instrument. Regardless which retrieval scheme will be used, the simultaneous retrievability of pressure and temperature depends largely on the proper selection of microwindows. Microwindows which contain a large amount of information on these target quantities while being insensitive to systematic errors are considered to be the most appropriate ones. A microwindow selection which minimizes the pressure temperature retrieval error has been carried out for the instrument specifications of MIPAS- ENVISAT. Errors under consideration were random noise, calibration uncertainties, and neglection of possible breakdown of thermodynamic equilibrium. ©2005 Copyright SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering.