Retrieval of aerosol profile variations from reflected radiation in the oxygen absorption A-band.

Through a Fredholm integral equation of the first kind, aerosol kernel functions relate the variations in radiance measured by satellites to the variations in the aerosol extinction profile and thus permit profile retrieval from radiance measurements by inversion of the set of radiative transfer equations for various spectral intervals. Previously [Appl. Opt. 36, 1328 (1997)] the kernel functions were evaluated for the red and near-infrared spectral regions outside molecular absorption bands. Here they are computed within the oxygen A band with 20-cm?1 spectral resolution. It is shown that, even with such a relatively low spectral resolution, the new set of kernels is able to provide better information on and improved accuracy of the retrieved profile.