Synergy between middle infrared and mm-wave limb sounding of atmospheric temperature and minor constituents in different cloudy scenarios

The exploitation of the synergy between infrared and mm-wave limb sounding measurements is one of the key strength of the scientific payload proposed for the PREMIER mission candidate to the Core Missions of ESA Earth Explorer 7. As part of the preparatory activities of PREMIER, the PremierEx campaign was conducted in the Arctic region (Kiruna, Sweden) with the high altitude research aircraft M-55 Geophysica in March 2010. In this work, we discuss the synergistic use of MARSCHALS and MIPAS-STR data acquired during the Premier Ex scientific flight conducted on March 10, 2010 by using an innovative approach to the problem of atmospheric data fusion. We compare the quality of synergistic and individual retrieval products and present our conclusions on the potential of combined exploitation of the information associated to infrared and mm-wave limb observations of the UTLS. The cloud coverage (low clouds in the first part, no clouds in the central part and high tropospheric clouds at the end) observed along the flight provided representative test cases to evaluate the synergy in three different cloudy scenarios.