Quantifying Aerosol Types and Their Impact on Trace Gas Retrievals From Satellite Measurements

One of the major sources of uncertainty in the retrieval of trace gas abundances from space-borne measurements is the type, amount and vertical distribution of aerosols in the atmosphere. Optical properties were derived for the broad classification of aerosol types investigated by Kahn et al. (2001), taking polarization into account. Examination of the scattering matrix elements resulted in a smaller set of independent aerosol types whose radiative effects were different. Weighting functions were then calculated for each of these types, assuming exponentially tailing aerosol concentration in the troposphere and a Junge distribution for the stratosphere. The different shapes of the weighting functions indicate different amount and distribution of the information content. Implications for trace gas retrievals from satellite-based measurements made by polarization-sensitive instruments (such as those on OMI, GOME, SCIAMACHY and OCO) will be discussed.