HIGHLIGHTS OF STUDIES OF THE ATHOSPHERIC TRACE HOLECULE SPECTROSCOPY (ATMOS) EXPERIMENT INFRARED SOLAR SPECTRA

Author Institution: Atmospheric Sciences Division, NASA Langley Research Center; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology; Institute of Astrophysics, University of Li\`{e}geThe ATMOS instrument is a high-speed Fourier transform spectrometer designed to record 0.01 cm-1 resolution broadband infrared solar aborption spectra from the U.S. Space. Shuttle. The primary measurement goal is to obtain long-path sunrise and sunset observations of atmospheric trace molecules in the 20- to 120-km altitude region to determine the detailed compositional structure of the stratosphere and mesosphere, and its global, seasonal, and long-term variability. The instrument has operated successfully as part of the Spacelab 3 mission in April-May 1985 and the ATLAS 1 mission in March-April 1992. Additional flights are planned. Thus far, more than two dozen atmospheric gases have been identified and quantitatively analyzed providing, for example, unique information on the partitioning of the molecules in the chlorine, nitrogen, and fluorine chemical families. This talk will provide an overview of the ATMOS experiment, a description of the observational data, a summary of the methods used in retrieving atmospheric parameters, and highlights of the results. Problems of spectroscopic Interest will be emphasized