Michael Höpfner

Bio: Michael Höpfner is an academic researcher from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The author has contributed to research in topics: Stratosphere & Atmospheric sounding. The author has an hindex of 44, co-authored 216 publications receiving 6430 citations.

Intercomparison of retrieval codes used for the analysis of high-resolution, ground-based FTIR measurements

Abstract: A rigorous and systematic intercomparison of codes used for the retrieval of trace gas profiles from high-resolution ground-based solar absorption FTIR measurements is presented for the first time. Spectra were analyzed with the two widely used independent, retrieval codes: SFIT2 and PROFFIT9. Vertical profiles of O 3 , HNO 3 , HDO, and N 2 O were derived from the same set of typical observed spectra. Analysis of O 3 was improved by using updated line parameters. It is shown that profiles and total column amounts are in excellent agreement, when similar constraints are applied, and that the resolution kernel matrices are also consistent. Owing to the limited altitude resolution of ground-based observations, the impact of the constraints on the solution is not negligible. It is shown that the results are also compatible for independently chosen constraints. Perspectives for refined constraints are discussed. It can be concluded that the error budget introduced by the radiative transfer code and the retrieval algorithm on total columns deduced from high-resolution ground-based solar FTIR spectra is below 1%.

Retrieval of temperature and tangent altitude pointing from limb emission spectra recorded from space by the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS)

Abstract: [1] Retrieval of abundances of atmospheric species from limb infrared emission spectra requires accurate knowledge of the pointing of the instrument in terms of elevation, as well as temperature and pressure profiles. An optimal estimation-based method is presented to infer these quantities from measured spectra. The successful and efficient joint retrieval of these largely correlated quantities depends strongly on the proper selection of the retrieval space, the selection of spectral microwindows, and the choice of reasonable constraints which force the solution to be stable. The proposed strategy was applied to limb emission spectra recorded with the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) on board the Envisat research satellite in order to validate the instrument pointing information based on the satellite's orbit and attitude control system which uses star tracker information as a reference. Both systematic and periodic pointing calibration errors were detected, which meanwhile have been corrected to a major part. Furthermore, occasional pitch jumps were detected, which could be assigned to parameter uploads to the satellite's orbit and attitude control system. It has been shown that in general, it is justified to assume local thermodynamic equilibrium below 60 km for these purposes. The retrieval method presented has been proven to be suitable for independent monitoring of MIPAS line-of-sight pointing.

Retrieval of temperature, H 2 O, O 3 , HNO 3 , CH 4 , N 2 O, ClONO 2 and ClO from MIPAS reduced resolution nominal mode limb emission measurements

Abstract: . Retrievals of temperature, H2O, O3, HNO3, CH4, N2O, ClONO2 and ClO from MIPAS reduced spectral resolution nominal mode limb emission measurements outperform retrievals from respective full spectral resolution measurements both in terms of altitude resolution and precision. The estimated precision (including measurement noise and propagation of uncertain parameters randomly varying in the time domain) and altitude resolution are typically 0.5–1.4 K and 2–3.5 km for temperature between 10 and 50 km altitude, and 5–6%, 2–4 km for H2O below 30 km altitude, 4–5%, 2.5–4.5 km for O3 between 15 and 40 km altitude, 3–8%, 3–5 km for HNO3 between 10 and 35 km altitude, 5–8%, 2–3 km for CH4 between 15 and 35 km altitude, 5–10%, 3 km for N2O between 15 and 35 km altitude, 8–14%, 2.5–9 km for ClONO2 below 40 km, and larger than 35%, 3–7 km for ClO in the lower stratosphere. As for the full spectral resolution measurements, the reduced spectral resolution nominal mode horizontal sampling (410 km) is coarser than the horizontal smoothing (often below 400 km), depending on species, altitude and number of tangent altitudes actually used for the retrieval. Thus, aliasing might be an issue even in the along-track domain. In order to prevent failure of convergence, it was found to be essential to consider horizontal temperature gradients during the retrieval.

Optimized forward model and retrieval scheme for MIPAS near-real-time data processing.

Abstract: An optimized code to perform the near-real-time retrieval of profiles of pressure, temperature, and volume mixing ratio (VMR) of five key species (O3, H2O, HNO3, CH4, and N2O) from infrared limb spectra recorded by the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) experiment on board the European Space Agency (ESA) Environmental Satellite ENVISAT-1 was developed as part of a ESA-supported study. The implementation uses the global fit approach on selected narrow spectral intervals (microwindows) to retrieve each profile in sequence. The trade-off between run time and accuracy of the retrieval was optimized from both the physical and the mathematical points of view, with optimizations in the program structure, in the radiative transfer model, and in the computation of the retrieval Jacobian. The attained performances of the retrieval code are noise error on temperature <2 K at all the altitudes covered by the typical MIPAS scan (8–53 km with 3-km resolution), noise error on tangent pressure <3%, and noise error on VMR of the target species <5% at most of the altitudes covered by the standard MIPAS scan, with a total run time of less than 1 min on a modern workstation.

MIPAS level 2 operational analysis

Abstract: The MIPAS (Michelson Interferometer for Pas- sive Atmospheric Sounding) instrument has been operating on-board the ENVISAT satellite since March 2002. In the first two years, it acquired in a nearly continuous manner high resolution (0.025 cm 1 unapodized) emission spectra of the Earth's atmosphere at limb in the middle infrared region. This paper describes the level 2 near real-time (NRT) and off- line (OL) ESA processors that have been used to derive level 2 geophysical products from the calibrated and geolocated level 1b spectra. The design of the code and the analysis methodology have been driven by the requirements for NRT processing. This paper reviews the performance of the opti- mized retrieval strategy that has been implemented to achieve these requirements and provides estimated error budgets for the target products: pressure, temperature, O 3, H2O, CH4, HNO3, N2O and NO2, in the altitude measurement range from 6 to 68 km. From application to real MIPAS data, it was found that no change was needed in the developed code although an ex- ternal algorithm was introduced to identify clouds with high opacity and to exclude affected spectra from the analysis. In addition, a number of updates were made to the set-up pa- rameters and to auxiliary data. In particular, a new version of the MIPAS dedicated spectroscopic database was used and, in the OL analysis, the retrieval range was extended to reduce errors due to uncertainties in extrapolation of the profile out- side the retrieval range and more stringent convergence cri- teria were implemented.

The HITRAN 2008 molecular spectroscopic database

Abstract: This paper describes the contents of the 2016 edition of the HITRAN molecular spectroscopic compilation. The new edition replaces the previous HITRAN edition of 2012 and its updates during the intervening years. The HITRAN molecular absorption compilation is composed of five major components: the traditional line-by-line spectroscopic parameters required for high-resolution radiative-transfer codes, infrared absorption cross-sections for molecules not yet amenable to representation in a line-by-line form, collision-induced absorption data, aerosol indices of refraction, and general tables such as partition sums that apply globally to the data. The new HITRAN is greatly extended in terms of accuracy, spectral coverage, additional absorption phenomena, added line-shape formalisms, and validity. Moreover, molecules, isotopologues, and perturbing gases have been added that address the issues of atmospheres beyond the Earth. Of considerable note, experimental IR cross-sections for almost 300 additional molecules important in different areas of atmospheric science have been added to the database. The compilation can be accessed through www.hitran.org. Most of the HITRAN data have now been cast into an underlying relational database structure that offers many advantages over the long-standing sequential text-based structure. The new structure empowers the user in many ways. It enables the incorporation of an extended set of fundamental parameters per transition, sophisticated line-shape formalisms, easy user-defined output formats, and very convenient searching, filtering, and plotting of data. A powerful application programming interface making use of structured query language (SQL) features for higher-level applications of HITRAN is also provided.

Atmospheric radiative transfer modeling: a summary of the AER codes

Abstract: The radiative transfer models developed at AER are being used extensively for a wide range of applications in the atmospheric sciences. This communication is intended to provide a coherent summary of the various radiative transfer models and associated databases publicly available from AER ( http://www.rtweb.aer.com ). Among the communities using the models are the remote sensing community (e.g. TES, IASI), the numerical weather prediction community (e.g. ECMWF, NCEP GFS, WRF, MM5), and the climate community (e.g. ECHAM5). Included in this communication is a description of the central features and recent updates for the following models: the line-by-line radiative transfer model (LBLRTM); the line file creation program (LNFL); the longwave and shortwave rapid radiative transfer models, RRTM_LW and RRTM_SW; the Monochromatic Radiative Transfer Model (MonoRTM); the MT_CKD Continuum; and the Kurucz Solar Source Function. LBLRTM and the associated line parameter database (e.g. HITRAN 2000 with 2001 updates) play a central role in the suite of models. The physics adopted for LBLRTM has been extensively analyzed in the context of closure experiments involving the evaluation of the model inputs (e.g. atmospheric state), spectral radiative measurements and the spectral model output. The rapid radiative transfer models are then developed and evaluated using the validated LBLRTM model.

The HITRAN molecular spectroscopic database: edition of 2000 including updates through 2001

Abstract: This paper describes the status circa 2001, of the HITRAN compilation that comprises the public edition available through 2001. The HITRAN compilation consists of several components useful for radiative transfer calculation codes: high-resolution spectroscopic parameters of molecules in the gas phase, absorption cross-sections for molecules with very dense spectral features, aerosol refractive indices, ultraviolet line-by-line parameters and absorption cross-sections, and associated database management software. The line-by-line portion of the database contains spectroscopic parameters for 38 molecules and their isotopologues and isotopomers suitable for calculating atmospheric transmission and radiance properties. Many more molecular species are presented in the infrared cross-section data than in the previous edition, especially the chlorofluorocarbons and their replacement gases. There is now sufficient representation so that quasi-quantitative simulations can be obtained with the standard radiance codes. In addition to the description and justification of new or modified data that have been incorporated since the last edition of HITRAN (1996), future modifications are indicated for cases considered to have a significant impact on remote-sensing experiments. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The global lightning-induced nitrogen oxides source

Abstract: . The knowledge of the lightning-induced nitrogen oxides (LNOx) source is important for understanding and predicting the nitrogen oxides and ozone distributions in the troposphere and their trends, the oxidising capacity of the atmosphere, and the lifetime of trace gases destroyed by reactions with OH. This knowledge is further required for the assessment of other important NOx sources, in particular from aviation emissions, the stratosphere, and from surface sources, and for understanding the possible feedback between climate changes and lightning. This paper reviews more than 3 decades of research. The review includes laboratory studies as well as surface, airborne and satellite-based observations of lightning and of NOx and related species in the atmosphere. Relevant data available from measurements in regions with strong LNOx influence are identified, including recent observations at midlatitudes and over tropical continents where most lightning occurs. Various methods to model LNOx at cloud scales or globally are described. Previous estimates are re-evaluated using the global annual mean flash frequency of 44±5 s−1 reported from OTD satellite data. From the review, mainly of airborne measurements near thunderstorms and cloud-resolving models, we conclude that a "typical" thunderstorm flash produces 15 (2–40)×1025 NO molecules per flash, equivalent to 250 mol NOx or 3.5 kg of N mass per flash with uncertainty factor from 0.13 to 2.7. Mainly as a result of global model studies for various LNOx parameterisations tested with related observations, the best estimate of the annual global LNOx nitrogen mass source and its uncertainty range is (5±3) Tg a−1 in this study. In spite of a smaller global flash rate, the best estimate is essentially the same as in some earlier reviews, implying larger flash-specific NOx emissions. The paper estimates the LNOx accuracy required for various applications and lays out strategies for improving estimates in the future. An accuracy of about 1 Tg a−1 or 20%, as necessary in particular for understanding tropical tropospheric chemistry, is still a challenging goal.