Atmospheric Infra-Red Emissions Group    (A.I.R.E.)

Solar System Department (D.S.S.) Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (I.A.A.) Apdo. 3004, 18080 Granada, Spain Tel: (+34) 958 121 311 Fax: (+34) 958 814 530

• Radiative transfer problems in planetary atmospheres,
• Infrared energy balance of the terrestrial planets' upper atmospheres
• Modelling non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (non-LTE) conditions in the upper atmosphere
• Effects and parameterizations of non-LTE for Global Circulation Models and line-by-line radiation codes
• Simulation of atmospheric emerging radiances and satellite remote measurements
• Remote sensing (retrieval theory and validation) of atmospheric constituents and parameters from space.

• NON-LTE MODELLING OF IR EMISSIONS IN MARS' ATMOSPHERE
  
  Several publications describe the theoretical model developed for the study of the IR emissions of the upper atmosphere of Mars, a study performed the project PMIRR, in colaboration with Oxford University and the JPL. Unfortunately the instrument was on board the two malograted NASA missions to Mars: the Mars Observer and the Mars Climate Orbiter ... so ... the predictions are still to be confirmed !

  More information

• PARAMETERIZATION OF NON-LTE EFFECTS FOR GCM
  
  A very important application of our time-consuming and elaborated non-LTE models is the possibility to apply them to large Global Circulation Models (GCM). The models are being used to create fast schemes or parameterizations to allow for non-LTE effects to be incorporated into the GCMs. We did some work at NASA-Ames for the solar heating term, and now we are devoted to the thermal cooling term, within an ongoing ESA project for a Mars Climate Database.

  More information

• RETRIEVAL OF MIDDLE ATMOSPHERE CO IN POLAR REGIONS
  
  We have been working for several years in the difficult validation of the retrievals of CO from the ISAMS measurements at 4.7 um, affected by non-LTE and with not a large SNR in the mesosphere. The effort was well worthy and the best dataset of CO in the middle atmosphere is now available from the ISAMS archive. The data show very interesting information about dynamics of the middle atmosphere, and will possibly keep many modellers busy for a long time trying to understand all that.

  More information

• CO2 ABUNDANCES IN THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE
  
  At last we could complete some analysis of the wideband radiances measured by the instrument ISAMS in 1991-1992. The data taken in its channel 00W was not designed for this purpose but we have applied our non-LTE models and detailed line-by-line calculations in order to extract all the information we can about the interesting problem of the CO2 abundances in the MLT region (upper mesosphere and the lower thermosphere). In particular we wanted to study the possible time and spatial variability, and the difficult comparison with theoretical predictions so far ... We are still working on this topic!

  More information

• NON-LTE IN THE ATMOSPHERE OF VENUS
  
  A similar exercise to the non-LTE studies for the Martian atmosphere but now for Venus. This is a recent work carried out for the Ph. Degree of Cristina Roldan, here at the I.A.A., who tries to apply our experience and models to Venus, more than a decade after the last studies of this kind were done in that planet by Bob Dickinson ,Stephen Bougher and others at the University of Arizona.

  More information ... available soon

• RADIATIVE PROPERTIES OF CO2 ATMOSPHERES
  
  Our insight into the non-LTE behaviour of the CO2 emissions in Mars and Venus, the thermal cooling and solar heating by the vibrationa-rotational CO2 transitions in the upper atmosphere, and their radiative lifetimes and damping rates, allow us to compare between those two planetary atmospheres and try to understand their similarities and differences.

  More information ... available soon

• IMPLEMENTATION OF NON-LTE ON LINE-BY-LINE RADIATION CODES
  
  Our long collaboration with David Edwards improved from his sabbatical in Granada in 1993, in the A.I.R.E. group, where we all worked on incorporating non-LTE proceses in the line-by-line code GENLN2. This work has permitted a number of interesting analysis of satellite data, as presented in some of our publications.

  More information ... available soon

---

BACK TO :			TOP	GROUP	PROJECTS	PUBLICATIONS		A.I.R.E.		D.S.S.	I.A.A.	C.S.I.C.

Last update: 15-Nov-1999