Off-axis measurements of atmospheric trace gases by use of an airborne ultraviolet-visible spectrometer

An airborne UV-visible spectrometer, the Gas Analyzer Spectrometer Correlating Optical Differences, airborne version (GASCOD/A4pi) was successfully operated during the Airborne Polar Experiment, Geophysica Aircraft in Antarctica airborne campaign from Ushuaia (54degrees49'S, 68degrees18'W), Argentina in southern spring 1999. The instrument measured scattered solar radiation through three optical windows with a narrow field of view (FOV), one from the zenith, two from the horizontal, as well as actinic fluxes through 2pi FOV radiometric heads. Only a few airborne measurements of scattered solar radiation at different angles from the zenith are available in the literature. With our configuration we attempted to obtain the average line-of-sight concentrations of detectable trace gases. The retrieval method, based on differential optical absorption spectroscopy, is described and results for ozone are shown and compared with measurements from an in situ instrument as the first method of validation.