Refractive Effects in Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere with Infrared Transmission Spectroscopy

Abstract

A ray tracing technique which includes atmospheric refraction is used to tabulate the air mass and the single layer effective temperature and pressure for a grazing ray from the sun. Summer and winter atmospheric profiles are used with observer altitudes ranging from 10 to 50 km in steps of 1 km. Zenith angles ranging from 80 degrees up to 97 degrees are considered. Results indicate that neglecting refraction in the computation of air mass and effective pressure can lead to overestimates of these quantities by up to 25% for aircraft observers, 60% for high altitude balloons, and 200% for satellite observers.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1975
Accession Number
ADA011253

Entities

People

  • Aaron R Goldman
  • Donald E. Snider

Organizations

  • Ballistic Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Masses
  • Aircrafts
  • Altitude
  • Atmospheric Refraction
  • Geometry
  • High Altitude
  • Jet Propulsion
  • Measurement
  • Military Research
  • Observers
  • Optical Properties
  • Plastic Explosives
  • Ray Tracing
  • Refraction
  • Refractive Index
  • Three Dimensional
  • Water Vapor

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science
  • Physics

Readers

  • Atmospheric Remote Sensing.
  • Spectroscopy.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Orbital Debris