P. E. Morris

Bio: P. E. Morris is an academic researcher from University of Oxford. The author has contributed to research in topics: Stratosphere & Nitrogen dioxide. The author has an hindex of 8, co-authored 13 publications receiving 420 citations.

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.

Remote sensing of atmospheric structure and composition by pressure modulator radiometry from space: The ISAMS experiment on UARS

Abstract: The scientific objectives of the improved stratospheric and mesospheric sounder (ISAMS) experiment involve the measurement of global temperature and composition profiles from an instrument on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). This paper describes the instrument concept, its design, and its performance as calculated and as measured in the laboratory. The data retrieval technique, operating modes, observing strategy, and the error budget are briefly discussed.

Fast monochromatic radiative transfer calculations for limb sounding

Abstract: Satellite observations of atmospheric infrared spectra can be modeled accurately with line-by-line calculations, but these are too slow to be incorporated into operational retrieval schemes. However, a monochromatic calculation is still feasible if the line-by-line summation is replaced by pre-tabulated absorption coefficients, requiring a three-way optimization of storage space, accuracy and access time. Such a scheme is used for the operational processing of data from MIPAS, a limb-viewing interferometer. The tabulated data are compressed to a manageable size using singular value decomposition, although the reconstruction adds a small overhead. The number of monochromatic radiative transfer calculations is reduced by determining suitable quadrature points in the spectral domain, which reduces both processing time and data storage requirements. An important aspect of such optimizations is the control of the associated errors in the forward model calculation. The result is an acceleration of monochromatic forward model calculations by one or two orders of magnitude compared to a line-by-line calculation without any significant loss of accuracy, while obtaining data compression factors of 100 or more compared to a direct tabulation of absorption coefficients.

Observations of V = 1–0 emission from thermospheric nitric oxide by ISAMS

Abstract: The Improved Stratospheric and Mesospheric Sounder (ISAMS) on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) has made global measurements of emission from the 1→0 band of nitric oxide (NO), using a limb viewing geometry in which the tangent point is scanned from 0 km to >150 km. Vertical profiles of atmospheric radiance often show a peak around 120 km altitude, due to the relatively high temperatures and densities of NO(v=1) found in the lower thermosphere. In this letter we report on some aspects of the radiance from NO(v=1), in particular observations of the lower thermosphere during periods of quiet and intense geomagnetic activity.

Validation of nitrogen dioxide measurements from the Improved Stratospheric and Mesospheric Sounder

Abstract: Measurements of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from the Improved Stratospheric and Mesospheric Sounder (ISAMS) on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) are assessed. Channel 5 of the instrument was dedicated to observations of nitrogen dioxide and employed pressure-modulation and wideband radiometry to make measurements at 6.2 μm. This dual technique allows simultaneous determination of nitrogen dioxide mixing ratio and the aerosol extinction coefficient at this wavelength and therefore provides nitrogen dioxide data even in the presence of heavy aerosol loading. Approximately 180 days of data, in the period from September 1991 to July 1992, were obtained with, typically, over 2600 profiles per day for each retrieved species, covering an altitude range of 100–0.01 mbar. In this paper the version 10 data are assessed and a full error analysis is described. Comparisons with the Cryogenic Limb Array Etalon Spectrometer (CLAES) on UARS and the Limb Infrared Monitor of the Stratosphere (LIMS) on Nimbus 7 are also presented. It is concluded that the morphology of the retrieved ISAMS fields is robust and consistent with concurrent as well as previous infrared satellite measurements. Random errors are estimated to be of the order of 10% for nighttime and 15% for daytime NO2 near the maxima of the distributions, and systematic errors are estimated to be of a similar size. However, there remains an unresolved systematic difference of about a factor of 2 between ISAMS and CLAES. Both random and systematic errors are likely to be reduced in future versions of the processing.

MIPAS: an instrument for atmospheric and climate research

Abstract: MIPAS, the Michelson Interferometer for Pas- sive Atmospheric Sounding, is a mid-infrared emission spectrometer which is part of the core payload of ENVISAT. It is a limb sounder, i.e. it scans across the horizon detecting atmospheric spectral radiances which are inverted to verti- cal temperature, trace species and cloud distributions. These data can be used for scientific investigations in various re- search fields including dynamics and chemistry in the alti- tude region between upper troposphere and lower thermo- sphere. The instrument is a well calibrated and characterized Fourier transform spectrometer which is able to detect many trace constituents simultaneously. The different concepts of retrieval methods are described including multi-target and two-dimensional retrievals. Operationally generated data sets consist of temperature, H2O, O3, CH4, N2O, HNO3, and NO2 profiles. Measurement errors are investigated in de- tail and random and systematic errors are specified. The re- sults are validated by independent instrumentation which has been operated at ground stations or aboard balloon gondolas and aircraft. Intercomparisons of MIPAS measurements with other satellite data have been carried out, too. As a result, it

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.

The UARS and EOS Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) Experiments.

Abstract: The Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) experiments obtain measurements of atmospheric composition, temperature, and pressure by observations of millimeter- and submillimeter-wavelength thermal emission as the instrument field of view is scanned through the atmospheric limb. Features of the measurement technique include the ability to measure many atmospheric gases as well as temperature and pressure, to obtain measurements even in the presence of dense aerosol and cirrus, and to provide near-global coverage on a daily basis at all times of day and night from an orbiting platform. The composition measurements are relatively insensitive to uncertainties in atmospheric temperature. An accurate spectroscopic database is available, and the instrument calibration is also very accurate and stable. The first MLS experiment in space, launched on the (NASA) Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) in September 1991, was designed primarily to measure stratospheric profiles of ClO, O3, H2O, and atmospheric press...

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.

Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere (CRISTA) data processing and atmospheric temperature and trace gas retrieval

Abstract: The Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere (CRISTA) experiment aboard the Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS) was successfully flown in early November 1994 (STS 66) and in August 1997 (STS 85). This paper focuses on the first flight of the instrument, which was part of the Atmospheric Laboratory for Application and Science 3 (ATLAS 3) mission of NASA. During a free flying period of 7 days, limb scan measurements of atmospheric infrared emissions were performed in the 4 to 71 μm wavelength region. For improved horizontal resolution, three telescopes (viewing directions) were used that sensed the atmosphere simultaneously. Atmospheric pressures, temperatures, and volume mixing ratios of various trace gases were retrieved from the radiance data by using a fast onion-peeling retrieval technique. This paper gives an overview of the data system including the raw data processing and the temperature and trace gas profile retrieval. Examples of version 1 limb radiance data (level 1 product) and version 1 mixing ratios (level 2 product) of ozone, ClONO 2 , and CFC-11 are given. A number of important atmospheric transport processes can already be identified in the level 1 limb radiance data. Radiance data of the lower stratosphere (18 km) indicate strong upwelling in some equatorial regions, centered around the Amazon, Congo, and Indonesia. Respective data at the date line are consistent with convection patterns associated with El Nino. Very low CFC-11 mixing ratios occur inside the South Polar vortex and cause low radiance values in a spectral region sensitive to CFC-11 emissions. These low values are a result of considerable downward transport of CFC-11 poor air that occurred during the winter months. Limb radiance profiles and retrieved mixing ratio profiles of CFC-11 indicate downward transport over ∼5 km. The accuracy of the retrieved version 1 mixing ratios is rather different for the various trace gases. In the middle atmosphere the estimated systematic error of ozone is ∼14%. Ozone data of correlative satellite measurements are well within this error bar. CRISTA agrees, for example, with Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy Experiment (ATMOS) sunset measurements typically within 5%. The random error of version 1 ozone mixing ratios is 4%. Similar values apply to other trace gases. These low random errors allow the identification of small and medium scale horizontal and vertical structures in the measured trace gas distributions. Examples of structures in mixing ratio fields of ozone, ClONO 2 , and CFC-11 are given.