Methane Vertical Profile Retrieval from the Thermal and Near-Infrared Atmospheric Spectra

Abstract

We present a method and algorithm for inverse problem solution in satellite sounding of the atmosphere for retrieval of vertical profiles of optically active gases by joint use of high-resolution thermal and near-infrared atmospheric spectra. To show the capabilities of the method, a computational experiment was performed on retrieving the vertical profile of the main methane isotopologue with simultaneous use of the simulated thermal and near-infrared spectra. The spectra simulated are similar to those measured by TANSO-FTS/GOSAT IR spectrometer. The signal-to-noise ratio in the simulated spectra was set to 350. The model experiments show higher accuracy of retrieval of the methane vertical profile and its total column in the case when both spectral bands (thermal and near-IR) are used in comparison with the case when each band is used separately.