Simultaneous Retrieval of Atmospheric Profiles and Cloud Properties from High Resolution Fourier Transform Infrared spectra

High resolution spectra obtained with a space-based Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometer such as ITS contain information regarding both atmospheric temperature and constituent profiles and cloud properties. Simultaneous retrieval of cloud properties along with atmospheric profiles is a highly non-linear process. A stable and robust retrieval algorithm, which adjusts the error covariance matrix at each iteration, will be discussed. A set of Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOF) is used to model the effective cloud emissivity, which is a function of frequency, effective particle radius and particle size distribution.