Remote Sensing of Atmospheric Trace Gases

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Abstract
The investigation of changes in ozone concentration and of the increase of the greenhouse effect requires simultaneous and global observations of atmospheric trace species. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometers are especially appropriate for this measurement task owing to their ability to detect wide spectral intervals with high spectral resolution. Experiments using FTIR to measure trace species have been used in remote sensing during the last 10 years. These contributions to atmospheric research have been very significant but as yet no cooled interferometer for time independent emission measurements has been flown aboard a satellite. The objective of putting a cooled FTIR into space has led to a novel optical design, the so called double pendulum interferometer (DPI). The DPI is the core part of several MIPAS (Michelson interferometer for passive atmospheric sounding) experiments which have already been undertaken for atmospheric measurements. The most interesting results with respect to ozone research are presented. The cooled MIPAS space experiment is in development for the first European Polar Platform satellite.