The impact of radiometric noise on the performance of the Radiation Explorer in the Far Infrared (REFIR)

REFIR is a Fourier Transform Spectrometer designed to measure the upwelling IR Earth's emission from space in the spectral range 100 to 1000 cm -1 with an unapodized spectral resolution of about 0.5 cm -1. One of the main scientific objectives of REFIR is to monitor the far IR planetary emission and the principal drivers of this emission, with particular attention being paid to the poorly understood mid and upper troposphere. The expected retrieval performance for temperature and water vapor profiles, from a subset of REFIR measurements, is evaluated and presented in this paper. ©2003 Copyright SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering.