Abstract
The Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment (SOFIE) makes broadband transmission measurements centered at 5.32 μm to determine the concentration profile of nitric oxide (NO). These measurements show a signal oscillation due to detector temperature variations that severely limit the accuracy of NO retrievals if corrections are not applied. An empirical correction was developed to remove this instrumental error. This paper describes the correction, its impact on the retrieval, and presents a comparison from 87 to 105 km versus coincident atmospheric chemistry experiment—Fourier transform spectrometer (ACE-FTS) measurements. The southern hemisphere (SH) shows excellent agreement between the datasets, with statistically insignificant differences. The northern hemisphere (NH) SOFIE measurements exhibit a low bias of compared to ACE-FTS. NH measurements (sunrise observations) are still under study, and only SH NO data (sunset observations) are currently publicly available as of SOFIE data version 1.2.
© 2013 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
C. Thomas McElroy, Caroline R. Nowlan, James R. Drummond, Peter F. Bernath, David V. Barton, Denis G. Dufour, Clive Midwinter, Robert B. Hall, Akira Ogyu, Aaron Ullberg, David I. Wardle, Jay Kar, Jason Zou, Florian Nichitiu, Chris D. Boone, Kaley A. Walker, and Neil Rowlands
Appl. Opt. 46(20) 4341-4356 (2007)
Larry Gordley, John Burton, Benjamin T. Marshall, Martin McHugh, Lance Deaver, Joel Nelsen, James M. Russell, and Scott Bailey
Appl. Opt. 48(25) 4814-4825 (2009)
Chris D. Boone, Ray Nassar, Kaley A. Walker, Yves Rochon, Sean D. McLeod, Curtis P. Rinsland, and Peter F. Bernath
Appl. Opt. 44(33) 7218-7231 (2005)