Speaker
Description
Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) sounding of the thermal emission of the Earth’s atmosphere is a versatile tool to address multiple scientific questions with one single instrument. Broad spectral coverage in combination with high spectral resolution provide information on a variety of trace gases, temperature and clouds. In the last decades, airborne FTIR sounders have been deployed for demonstration of technologies designated for space instruments, validation of implemented missions, and addressing distinct scientific questions. We present a brief selection of observations by the airborne limb sounder MIPAS-STR (Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding-STRatospheric aircraft), the airborne limb imager GLORIA (Gimballed Limb Observer for Radiance Imaging of the Atmosphere), the balloon-borne MIPAS-B instrument, and MIPAS onboard Envisat in the last decades together with further observations and model data. The presented results comprise observations of the Arctic polar vortex, populations of large nitric acid trihydrate particles in polar stratospheric clouds, the mesoscale fine structure of a tropopause fold, and gravity waves caused by merging jet streams. These studies illustrate how advances in airborne FTIR limb observations have enabled access to smaller scales and supported atmospheric research in a time, where important progress has also been made in chemistry transport modelling and weather forecasting. They furthermore provide a glimpse of what can be expected from proposed future space missions, such as the ESA Earth Explorer 11 candidate CAIRT (Changing-Atmosphere Infra-Red Tomography explorer).
