The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) is a high-resolution limb sounder on board the European polar platform ENVISAT, scheduled for launch this summer. Three main characteristics converge in MIPAS which make it a very useful instrument for non-LTE studies: its wide spectral coverage (4.15-14.6 micrometers or 680-2275 cm^-1); high spectral resolution (0.03 cm^-1), and high sensitivity; all of this in addition to its global spatial coverage. In this paper we present an overview of the non-LTE studies that have been carried in preparation for the analysis of MIPAS data, including the evaluation of non-LTE effects in the operational processing, focused in the stratosphere, and the retrieval of species that normally emit under non-LTE conditions. The current mission plan for measuring the non-LTE upper atmosphere is described, as well as the general purpose non-LTE retrieval scheme developed for analyzing those measurements.

Date Published: 31 January 2002
PDF: 15 pages
Proc. SPIE 4539, Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere VI, (31 January 2002); doi: 10.1117/12.454458

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4539:
Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere VI
Klaus Schaefer; Olga Lado-Bordowsky; Adolfo Comeron; Michel R. Carleer; Janet S. Fender, Editor(s)