Spectral remote sensing of the atmosphere by the occultation of stars: Retrieval of the constituents and evaluation of the refraction effect

Abstract

Abstract The spectral inversion method was used for retrieval of the contents of atmospheric gases and aerosols in an application to ozone monitoring by the stellar light occultation technique. This method is focused on the aerosols contribution, and based upon a priori information about the spectral cross-sections of the atmospheric gases. A smooth filtration approach enables one to separate the gases and aerosols contribution to the optical depth. For an estimation of the aerosol effective radius, the Angstrom parametrization of the aerosol cross-section at visible wavelengths was used. The regular refraction effect in the case of limb measurements was accurately evaluated and an additional error caused by sunlight scattering was estimated using the solution of the ray tracing equations for a spherical atmosphere.