Data Processing Algorithms for Inferring Stratospheric Gas Concentrations from Balloon-Based Solar Occultation Data

摘要

In three high-altitude balloon experiments, the authors inferred concentrations of ozone, water vapor, and other gases in the stratosphere, using the technique of solar occultation. The objective was to demonstrate feasibility of a new technique before implementing it on a satellite, and to gain experience with handling the data. The technical report documents detail the methods developed for processing the data. It presents the equations that describe the atmospheric physics of the measurement and the algorithms to solve them. It also presents practical aspects of applying the algorithms to real data, methods for overcoming aberrations and problems inherent in the occultation technique, and sample results.