ACPD Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions ACPD 1680-7375 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acpd-8-4001-2008 Retrieval of stratospheric aerosol size information from OSIRIS limb scattered sunlight spectra Bourassa A. E. 1 Degenstein D. A. 2 Llewellyn E. J. 2 Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Hampton, VA, USA Institute of Space and Atmospheric Studies, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada 26 02 2008 8 1 4001 4016 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/8/4001/2008/acpd-8-4001-2008.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/8/4001/2008/acpd-8-4001-2008.pdf

Recent work has shown that the retrieval of stratospheric aerosol vertical profiles is possible using limb scattered sunlight measurements at optical wavelengths. The aerosol number density profile is retrieved for an assumed particle size distribution and composition. This result can be used to derive the extinction at the measured wavelength. However, large systematic error can result from the uncertainty in the assumed size distribution when the result is used to estimate the extinction at other wavelengths. It is shown in this work that the addition of information obtained from the near infrared limb radiance profile at 1530 nm measured by the imaging module of the OSIRIS instrument yields an indication of the aerosol size distribution profile that can be used to improve the fidelity of the retrievals. A comparison of the estimated extinction profile at 1020 nm with coincident occultation measurements demonstrates agreement to within approximately 15% from 12 to 27 km altitude.

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