General Physics Physics Seminar 21 November 2002
Molecular spectroscopy for atmospheric remote-sensing
Johannes Orphal
Laboratoire de Photophysique Moleculaire,
Universite Paris-Sud, Orsay, France
Molecular spectroscopy is an important tool for studying chemical processes
in the Earth's atmosphere. In the last decade, a new generation of
space-borne remote-sensing instruments based on spectroscopic techniques
has been developped, in order to monitor the global changes of the
atmosphere and - even more recently - the evolution of tropospheric air
pollution. From these developments, new requirements arise for the
precision of available laboratory data concerning many atmopheric molecules
and radicals.
In this talk, an overview will be given of recent remote-sensing
experiments like GOME (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment, in orbit onboard
ERS-2 since 1995), SCIAMACHY (Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for
Atmospheric Chartography) and MIPAS (Michelson Interferometer for Passive
Atmospheric Sounding), launched in spring 2002 onboard ENVISAT. Some
examples of the related spectroscopic laboratory work will be given, and
the new project of spectroscopic remote-sensing from a geostationary
satellite (GeoTROPE) will be presented.