Abstract

Correlation spectroscopy, which is a powerful diagnostic tool for the determination and monitoring of trace atmospheric contaminants, involves a correlative comparison between the features of a "field spectrum" of a specific region of the atmosphere, and the features of a "mask function" which is representative of the spectral absorption features of the molecular species of interest. The degree of correlation between these can be interpreted quantitatively as a direct measure of the column density of the species of interest in the instrumental field of view.

© 1987 Optical Society of America