Ozone profile retrieval from satellite observation using high spectral resolution infrared sounding instrument

This paper presents a preliminary result on the retrieval of atmospheric oz one profiles using an improved regression technique and utilizing the data from the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS), a hyper-spectral instrument e xpected to be flown on the EOS-AQUA platform in 2002. Simulated AIRS spectr a were used to study the sensitivity of AIRS radiance on the tropospheric a nd stratospheric ozone changes, and to study the impact of various channel combinations on the ozone profile retrieval. Sensitivity study results indi cate that the AIRS high resolution spectral channels between the wavenumber 650-800 cm(-1) provide very useful information to accurately retrieve trop ospheric and stratospheric ozone profiles. Eigenvector decomposition of AIR S spectra indicate that no more than 100 eigenvectors are needed to retriev e very accurate ozone profiles. The accuracy of the retrieved atmospheric o zone profile from the present technique and utilizing the AIRS data was com pared with the accuracy obtained from current Advanced TIROS Operational Ve rtical Sounder (ATOVS) data aboard National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis tration (NOAA) satellites. As expected, a comparison of retrieval results c onfirms that the ozone profile retrieved with the AIRS data is superior to that of ATOVS.