HR: 0830h
AN: A41E-0735    [PDF]
TI: Polarization Study of the O2 A-Band and Its Application to the Retrieval of O2 Column Abundance
AU: * Jiang, Y
EM: ybj@mls.jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AU: Jiang, X
EM: xun@gps.caltech.edu
AF: Caltech 150-21, 1200 E. California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125 United States
AU: Shia, R
EM: rls@gps.caltech.edu
AF: Caltech 150-21, 1200 E. California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125 United States
AU: Sander, S P
EM: Stanley.P.Sander@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AU: Yung, Y L
EM: yly@gps.caltech.edu
AF: Caltech 150-21, 1200 E. California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125 United States
AB: Light reflected or transmitted by a planetary atmosphere contains information about molecules and particles in the atmosphere. Therefore, accurate modeling of the radiation field may be used to retrieve information on atmospheric composition. In this work, a multi-layer model for a vertically inhomogeneous atmosphere is implemented by using the doubling-adding method for a plane-parallel atmosphere. By studying the absorption, scattering and the degree of polarization of the reflected solar light from the sea surface (by glint) in the O2 A-band, around 760 nm, we show the sensitivity of the retrieval to aerosols. From high-resolution reflectance measurements, it is possible to retrieve O2 column abundances with precision of 0.1% for clear sky (O\'Brien et al., 1997). However, there may be errors associated with the presence of small amounts of aerosols and cirrus clouds. The linear polarization is very sensitive to the aerosol and cirrus distributions. Therefore, its measurement can also be used to assess their presence and quantify the associated errors in the retrieval of O2 column abundances.
DE: 0300 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting