MIPAS-ENVISAT limb-sounding measurements: trade-off study for improvement of horizontal resolution

Performance study and analysis method for a new-generation MIPAS experiment

This study fits within the ongoing activities aimed at filling the lack of an operational IR limb sounder after the ENVISAT fault. Notably, we report the performance of a possible evolution of the MIPAS experiment. The strategy proposed for the new experiment (that we denote as MIPAS2k) is derived from the PREMIER infrared limb sounder (IRLS) and relies on both 1D array detector technology and reduction of the spectral resolution to achieve dense atmospheric sampling. We define observation parameters and report, as an example, the performance obtained by MIPAS2k when measuring O₃fields. The information load (IL) analysis was exploited to assess the sensitivity of MIPAS2k and to select optimal spectral intervals for retrieval tests on simulated observations of the new experiment. The results of the IL analysis suggest a new approach to the retrieval strategy (denoted as full-2D) in which the unknown parameter is no longer an element of the altitude profile but the constant value taken by the atmospheric quantity within a parcel (denoted as "clove") of the 2D discretization. We demonstrate that the clove homogeneity assumption generates errors that are below the spectral noise of MIPAS2k when an appropriate clove thickness is used. Full-2D retrievals have been carried out on MIPAS2k simulated observations corresponding to a high resolution model atmosphere. We report a test case on O₃ VMR in which the retrieval precision is better than 5% between 20 and 40 km and better than 30% in the upper troposphere-lower stratosphere. We test the ability of MIPAS2k to reconstruct a fine O₃ structure present in the model atmosphere and we show how this structure would have been represented by MIPAS when measuring the same scenario. We have estimated the spatial resolution of MIPAS2k products by means of the perturbation approach that, in simulated retrievals, can be adopted to evaluate the averaging kernel of the retrieval parameters. For O₃ we have found the estimates of 200 km and 2.5 km for the horizontal and vertical resolutions respectively.

Two-dimensional sensitivity analysis of MIPAS observations

In this paper we propose a new approach to operate two-dimensional sensitivity studies on the observations of MIPAS, an experiment on board the ENVISAT satellite. The proposed analysis system is intended to evaluate the amount and the spatial distribution of the information that is carried by MIPAS observations with respect to the target atmospheric parameters. The new approach enables the definition and assessment of the target-dependent atmospheric sampling of the measurements. The amount of information is evaluated by merging MIPAS measurements, relative to different limb-scans, in a two-dimensional analysis that models the sensitivity of the spectral signals combined with the geometrical redundancy introduced by different observation geometries. The spatial distribution of the information that is obtained with our analysis highlights the advantage of using a two-dimensional retrieval system. Furthermore, within the two-dimensional context, this analysis provides crucial indications for the definition of the optimal retrieval grid and, therefore, for the best exploitation of existing measurements. The proposed analysis is also suited for the design of optimized observation strategies. The sensitivity analysis, applied in this paper to MIPAS observations, can be extended to other orbiting limb sounders that, like MIPAS, continuously measure the atmospheric emission along the orbit track.

GMTR: two-dimensional geo-fit multitarget retrieval model for michelson interferometer for passive atmospheric sounding/environmental satellite observations

We present a new retrieval model designed to analyze the observations of the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS), which is on board the ENVironmental SATellite (ENVISAT). The new geo-fit multitarget retrieval model (GMTR) implements the geo-fit two-dimensional inversion for the simultaneous retrieval of several targets including a set of atmospheric constituents that are not considered by the ground processor of the MIPAS experiment. We describe the innovative solutions adopted in the inversion algorithm and the main functionalities of the corresponding computer code. The performance of GMTR is compared with that of the MIPAS ground processor in terms of accuracy of the retrieval products. Furthermore, we show the capability of GMTR to resolve the horizontal structures of the atmosphere. The new retrieval model is implemented in an optimized computer code that is distributed by the European Space Agency as "open source" in a package that includes a full set of auxiliary data for the retrieval of 28 atmospheric targets.