STRATOSPHERIC AND MESOSPHERIC PRESSURE-TEMPERATURE PROFILES FROM ROTATIONAL ANALYSIS OF CO2 LINES IN ATMOSPHERIC TRACE MOLECULE SPECTROSCOPY ATLAS-1 INFRARED SOLAR OCCULTATION SPECTRA

A simple, classical, and expedient method for the retrieval of atmosph eric pressure-temperature profiles has been applied to the high-resolu tion infrared solar absorption spectra obtained with the atmospheric t race molecule spectroscopy (ATMOS) instrument. The basis for this meth od is a rotational analysis of retrieved apparent abundances from CO2 rovibrational absorption lines, employing existing constituent concent ration retrieval software used in the analysis of data returned by ATM OS. Pressure-temperature profiles derived from spectra acquired during the ATLAS 1 space shuttle mission of March-April 1992 are quantitativ ely evaluated and compared with climatological and meteorological data as a means of assessing the validity of this approach.