Monitoring the response of the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere to a greenhouse gas scenario. Final report, 1 May 1990--30 June 1994
A measurement system for examining the possible linkage between an increased concentration of Greenhouse Gases (GGs) and symptoms of climate change has been designed and evaluated. The system consists of a dual port emission interferometer and supporting data analysis algorithms for the remote sensing the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere from a high elevation ground site deployment. Two blackbody systems were designed and tested to provide necessary calibration targets for the interferometer. The interferometer was deployed during four different periods at climatologically distinct locations to test the capabilities of the system. Over two hundred spectra were collected in a variety of conditions ranging from a clear middle latitude atmosphere viewed from mountain site at 3.0 km ASL to sub-tropical marine stratocumulus cloudiness measured at Porto Santo Island near Madeira. The algorithm has been used successfully to retrieve temperature and moisture profiles from both the mountain and sea level deployments. These initial retrievals indicate that ground based systems may only be effective in sensing the temperature and moisture profiles for the first few kilometers above the instrument. The interferometric data have been used to estimate the size of ``equivalent spherical`` ice particles in cirrus clouds. The data from the sea level deployment were examined in order to retrieve the absorption coefficients of marine stratocumulus clouds and a double iteration algorithm has been developed to deduce the emittance of cirrus clouds from interferometric spectral measurements.
- Research Organization:
- Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States). Dept. of Atmospheric Science
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-90ER60970
- OSTI ID:
- 10187311
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ER/60970-3; ON: DE95000982; BR: KP0500000; TRN: AHC29425%%55
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 25 Sep 1994
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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