Source brightness fluctuation correction of solar absorption Fourier Transform mid infrared spectra

Abstract

Abstract. Solar absorption Fourier Transform infrared spectrometry is considered a precise and accurate method for the observation of trace gases in the atmosphere. The precision and accuracy of such measurements are dependent on the stability of the light source. Fluctuations in the source brightness reduce the precision and accuracy of the trace gas concentrations, but cannot always be avoided. Thus, a strong effort is made within the community to reduce the impact of source brightness fluctuations by applying a correction on the spectra following the measurements. So far, it could be shown that the precision and accuracy of CO2 total column concentrations could be improved by applying a source brightness fluctuation correction to spectra in the near infrared spectral region. The analysis of trace gas concentrations obtained from spectra in the mid infrared spectral region is fundamental. However, spectra below 2000 cm−1 are generally considered uncorrectable, if they are measured with a MCT detector. Such measurements introduce an unknown offset to MCT interferograms, which prevents a source brightness fluctuation correction. Here, we show a method of source brightness fluctuation correction, which can be applied on spectra in the whole infrared spectral region including spectra measured with a MCT detector. We present a solution to remove the unknown offset in MCT interferograms allowing MCT spectra for an application of source brightness fluctuation correction. This gives an improvement in the quality of MCT spectra and we demonstrate an improvement in the retrieval of O3 profiles and total column concentrations. For a comparison with previous studies, we apply our source brightness fluctuation correction method on spectra in the near infrared spectral region and show an improvement in the retrieval of CO2 total column concentrations.