DWTS (Project Pending)
Doppler Wind and Temperature Sounder
Abstract.A new approach to high altitude wind and temperature measurements is presented. It is shown that gas filter correlation radiometry (GFCR) can be employed from low earth orbit to simultaneously measure the Doppler shift and Doppler line width of emission spectra to infer both wind and kinetic temperature, respectively, with a simple radiometer that images the limb emission of nitric oxide (NO) near 5.3 microns and carbon dioxide near 4.4 microns through a gas cell containing low pressure of the same target gases. We show that profiles of temperature and wind can be measured day and night continuously from 25 to over 250 kilometers with less than 2% uncertainty at 10 km along-track intervals, far exceeding current capabilities. This approach, using a small, simple, moderately cooled IR camera, could provide unprecedented observations of atmospheric dynamics from lower stratosphere through upper thermosphere.