title: Atmospheric vertical profiles of O3, N2O, CH4, CCl2F2, and H2O retrieved from external-cavity quantum-cascade laser heterodyne radiometer measurements.
abstract: Atmospheric vertical profiles of ozone, nitrous oxide, methane, dichlorodifluoromethane, and water are retrieved from data collected with a widely tunable external-cavity quantum-cascade laser heterodyne radiometer (EC-QC-LHR) covering a spectral range between 1120 and 1238 cm(-1). The instrument was operated in solar occultation mode during a two-month measurement campaign at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, UK, in winter 2010/2011, and ultrahigh-resolution (60 MHz or 0.002 cm(-1)) transmission spectra were recorded for multiple narrow spectral windows (~1 cm(-1) width) specific to each molecule. The ultrahigh spectral resolution of the EC-QC-LHR allows retrieving altitudinal profiles from transmission spectra that contain only few (1-3) significant absorption lines of a target molecule. Profiles are validated by comparing with European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts operational atmospheric profiles (ozone and water), with other data in the literature (nitrous oxide, methane, dichlorodifluoromethane), and with retrievals from a lower resolution (600 MHz or 0.02 cm(-1)) Fourier transform spectroscopy data that were also recorded during the measurement campaign.
authors.affiliation: Electrical Engineering Department, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Tracy R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Rebecca A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.forename: Damien
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Weidmann
authors.forename: Gerard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wysocki