ON THE QUESTION OF MEASURING THE VERTICAL TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION OF THE ATMOSPHERE FROM SATELLITES

Abstract

The temperature of the atmosphere cannot be deduced from satellite radiance measurements alone; additional information is required. The additional required information is related to the detailed vertical temperature structure of the atmosphere, which is not supplied by the satellite radiance measurements. To deduce the mean temperature (or corresponding mean radiance) in several layers of the atmosphere, the problem may be divided into two parts. One part depends only on the measured satellite radiances; the second part, which depends on the unknown detailed vertical temperature distribution, may be considered as a correction term. Calculations show the magnitude of the two parts. The two parts seem to be related so that mean temperatures (or radiances) can be computed from satellite data with tolerable accuracy with aid of empirical relationships. Other authors have used various assumptions and statistical relations to cope with the required additional temperature information.