Spaceborne and airborne remote sensing measurements of the Earth’s atmosphere in limb geometry provide vertical profile information of atmospheric minor constituents and background parameters with generally good vertical resolution. These measurements include solar, lunar and stellar occultation measurements, measurements of thermal emissions in the microwave and infrared spectral regions, observations of limb-scattered solar radiation as well as measurements of non-thermal airglow emissions in the optical spectral range. Over the last decade Limb measurements in the different spectral regions have greatly improved our understanding of many physical and chemical processes in the Earth’s middle atmosphere, comprising the stratosphere and mesosphere.

The 7th atmospheric limb conference, held at Bremen, Germany, in June 2013 was dedicated to all scientific aspects related to middle atmospheric limb measurements, including current and future missions, instrument monitoring, algorithm development and implementation, radiative transfer modeling, validation of data products and scientific analyses based on the retrieved data products. This special issue is an outcome of the 7th atmospheric limb conference, and contributions on all aspects mentioned are welcome. Note that attendance of the conference is not a prerequisite for submitting manuscripts to this special issue.