Baugher, Elizabeth (2012-02). Comparison between Model Simulations and Measurements of Hyperspectral Far- infrared Radiation from FIRST during the RHUBC-II Campaign. Master's Thesis.
Thesis
Surface downward far-infrared (far-IR) spectra were collected from NASA's Far-Infrared Spectroscopy of the Troposphere (FIRST) instrument from August to October 2009 at an altitude of 5.4 km near the summit of Cerro Toco, Chile. This region is known for its dry, cold, and dominantly clear atmosphere, which is optimal for studying the effects, that water vapor and cirrus clouds have on the far-IR. Comparisons with Line-By-Line Discrete Ordinants Radiative Transfer model, LBLDIS, show that FIRST observes the very fine spectral structure in the far-IR with differences as small as +/- 0.7% for both clear-sky and cloudy-sky simulations. Clear sky model analysis demonstrated the greatest sensitivity to atmospheric conditions is between 300 and 500 cm-1. The cloudy-sky simulations demonstrated that the far-IR radiation has minimal sensitivity to cloud particle effective radius, yet is very sensitive to cloud optical thickness at wavenumbers between 400 - 600 cm-1. In fact, cirrus optical thickness found to be inferred from the brightness temperature differences at 250 and 559.5 cm-1. Aerosols proved to reduce downwelling radiance by half that a clear-sky would emit, but had little effect on the total far-IR radiative forcing. Furthermore, these far-IR measurements open a new window to understanding the radiative impacts of various atmospheric constituents such as water vapor and clouds, and to understanding and modeling the Earth's climate and energy budget.
