Ground-based passive probing using the microwave spectrum of oxygen

Abstract

The determination of the kinetic te mperature structure of th e tropo sphe re from ground-based measure me nts of oxygen emission s pectra in th e microwave region is di scussed. Molec ular absorption properti es of oxygen and water vapor are re viewed. A ne w "inversion" tec hniqu e is de scrib ed. This techniqu e uses a least squares· iteration solution whi c h is applicable to Fredholm integral eq uati ons of the fir st kind. Th e inve rsion tec hniqu e is used to reconstruct two types of tropos pheric te mpe ra-ture profiles. The effec ts of ce rtain types of e rrors in the brightness te mpe rature on-the de rive d te mperature di stributi on a re co mputed .