Articles | Volume 9, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1889-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1889-2016
Research article
 | 
29 Apr 2016
Research article |  | 29 Apr 2016

A sensitivity study on the retrieval of aerosol vertical profiles using the oxygen A-band

Santo Fedele Colosimo, Vijay Natraj, Stanley P. Sander, and Jochen Stutz

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Short summary
Vertical aerosol extinction profile retrievals based on space-borne oxygen A-band observations benefit from high spectral resolution measurements. Radiative transfer calculations show that under most atmospheric conditions the information content of the retrievals increases with spectral resolution, despite a decreasing signal-to-noise ratio. The retrieval of lower tropospheric aerosol extinction over high albedo surfaces and of lofted biomass burning plumes becomes thus possible.