APPROACH TO THE DESIGN AND DATA-ANALYSIS OF A LIMB-SCANNING EXPERIMENT

The design of spectroscopic measurements of the atmosphere with the li mb-scanning technique for the retrieval of constituent altitude profil es requires choosing instrumental, observational, and retrieval parame ters. An approach to this problem is discussed, and the mathematical t ools that make it possible to study the trade-off between the two conf licting requirements of optimum vertical resolution and small error of the profile are derived. As a first illustrative application, impleme ntation of the mathematical tools in the design of measurements to be carried out from a satellite platform is shown; a set of parameters th at provide a satisfactory compromise between the vertical resolution a nd the uncertainties of the retrieved profile has been identified. The mathematical model discussed can simulate the results obtained with r etrieval techniques that are based on the global inversion of the kern el that relates the observations and the unknown, profile. As a second application, a comparison between the a priori estimate of the uncert ainties provided by the mathematical tools and the results of the glob al analysis of data collected with a balloon-borne experiment is shown .