Abstract

Because of the exponential decay of water vapor mixing ratio with altitude, infrared radiance to space originates from very narrow atmospheric layers at altitudes dependent upon the wavelength of measurement. Thus if one could measure the vertical water vapor profile independent of the passive radiance measurements, the vertical temperature profile could be determined with high vertical resolution from a spectrum of upwelling water vapor radiance. The water vapor profiles could be obtained using active lidar techniques such as Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) or Raman Lidar which have experimentally demonstrated the capability to achieve water vapor mixing ratio profiles with high vertical resolution.

© 1990 Optical Society of America