UV spectral measurements at moderately high resolution and of OH resonance scattering resolved by polarization during the MANTRA 2002–2004 stratospheric balloon flights

Abstract

A moderately high-resolution (<0.1 nm) grating spectrometer designed to measure the solar radiation in the spectral range 295–315 nm was flown on the MANTRA stratospheric balloon payloads of 2002 and 2004. The instrument measures both the direct sunlight and the radiation scattered by the atmosphere. The latter can be observed in two orthogonal polarization directions, at 90° from the solar azimuth and at several elevations above the horizon. As the OH molecule is the principal resonant scatterer in this spectral region, this permits the inference of both ozone and OH column amounts as well as limited profile information. This paper describes the instrument and its in-flight characterization, the basic data processing and the influence of several aspects of the flight profile. The direct sun measurements are analyzed both to characterize the spectrometer responsivity to scattered radiation and to estimate the ozone abundance at the flight altitude and above. An example of a high-resolution solar spectrum at 37 km altitude is presented and compared with others in the literature. The measured OH and Rayleigh-scattered spectra are used to derive OH radiation intensity measurements (the OH airglow), which are compared with others in the literature.