Sensitivity of thermal infrared nadir instruments to the chemical and microphysical  properties of UTLS secondary sulfate aerosols

Sellitto, P.; Legras, B.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-115-2016

Articles | Volume 9, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-115-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Special issue:

StratoClim stratospheric and upper tropospheric processes...

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-115-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 9, issue 1

Research article

|

18 Jan 2016

Research article |

| 18 Jan 2016

Sensitivity of thermal infrared nadir instruments to the chemical and microphysical properties of UTLS secondary sulfate aerosols

P. Sellitto and B. Legras

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Final revised paper (published on 18 Jan 2016)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 10 Aug 2015)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC C2655: 'Review', Anonymous Referee #1, 20 Aug 2015
- AC C2917: 'Quick reply to Anonymous Referee #1', Pasquale Sellitto, 11 Sep 2015
RC C3293: 'comments', Anonymous Referee #2, 16 Oct 2015
RC C3455: 'Referee Comment', Anonymous Referee #3, 21 Oct 2015
AC C3943: 'Reply to the three Anonymous Referees', Pasquale Sellitto, 19 Nov 2015

Short summary

This study investigates the sensitivity of TIR satellite nadir observations to the chemical composition and the size distribution of idealized UTLS sulfate aerosol layers. The dependence of the sulfate spectral signature, between 700 and 1200 cm⁻¹, on the sulfuric acid mixing ratio, effective number concentration and radius, as well as the role of interfering parameters, is analysed. The information content of broadband and high-spectral-resolution observations is finally discussed.