Water content in convective storm clouds.

The condensed water content of convective storms was measured by the use of a penetrating aircraft. Regions 1 to 2 kilometers in extent and having condensed water contents of about 20 grams per cubic meter were found to be definite features of the cloud interior.

Temperature soundings with partially scanned interferograms.

The information contained in a complete interferogram and in a spectra are equivalent, but within a portion of an interferogram the two contain different information and cannot be directly compared. The partial interferogram provides information about particular types of structure within the spectra and may be better suited to a particular task than the spectra which contains much information of no value to the particular task. The advantages of partially scanned interferograms for remote soundings of atmospheric temperature are discussed, and several examples are given. These suggest that partially scanned interferograms can provide more detailed and versatile information than the presently used techniques. In particular, they seem able to cope with the temperatures near the ground and temperature inversions.

High resolution laser imaging system.

Computations indicate that a synthetic aperture laser imaging system can provide images with 10-cm resolution at satellite ranges using a 10-W cw laser. When imaging satellites from the ground, the synthetic aperture system reduces atmospheric degradations. The system uses 20-cm diam receiver optics. The low laser power is made possible by using separate transmitter and receiver optics and coded pulses with a 50% transmitter duty cycle. The coded pulses are derived from Hadamard matrices for which there is an efficient algorithm to transform the received data into images. The synthetic aperture yields spatial resolutions independent of range, and the coded pulses result in an effective range dependence of r(-2)2 instead of r(-4).

A Comparison Between Statistical Model and Line by Line Calculation with Application to the 9.6-micro Ozone and the 2.7-'' Water Vapor Bands.

The transmittance calculated by the statistical band model is compared with that obtained by precise line by line calculations for selected ir bands, at constant temperature and path length. As an application, the statistical band representation of the 9.6-micro ozone band is found to agree with line by line calculations, and band model parameters are provided, although previous authors have encountered difficulties in fitting the statistical model to this band. The same type of comparison is also carried out for the 2.7-micro water vapor band.

Pollution plume transport and diffusion studies using fluorescence lidar.

Calculations have been performed to estimate the feasibility of conducting plume transport and diffusion. studies by creating a plume of fluorescent particles that are then interrogated by a lidar in both the fluorescent and elastically scattered modes. The computations were performed both for fluorescent and elastically scattered modes. The computations were performed both for daytime and nighttime operation and for cw as well as conventional pulsed operation. The incorporation of a cw transmitter facilitates plume search and also provides cross-sectional integration of the plume particle population. Experimental work has been initiated in the study of both liquid and solid fluorescent aerosols and methods for their generation.

Statistical Band Model Parameters and Integrated Intensities for the 5.9-mu, 7.5-mu, and 11.3-mu Bands of HNO(3) Vapor.

Quantitative absorption measurements of the 5.9-mu, 7.5-mu, and the 11.3-mu bands of pure HNO(3) vapor were carried out at 40 degrees C. Use was made of absorption cells of various lengths in order to obtain curves of growth. The statistical spectral band model was applied, and band model parameters and integrated intensities were derived.

Long Path Atmospheric Ozone Absorption in the 9-10-micro Region Observed from a Balloon-Borne Spectrometer.

A balloon-borne spectrometer was used to measure the atmospheric absorption of solar radiation in the 9-10-micro region as a function of altitude. Among the numerous spectra recorded, several were made with very long optical paths above the troposphere obtained from floating altitude (~30 km) while the sun set. When the experimental results are compared with calculated spectra, based on line by line parameters of the nu(3) and nu(1) fundamentals of ordinary ozone, (16)O(3), combined with the Curtis-Godson approximation, large discrepancies are found for the long path spectra. It is shown that the hot bands nu(3), + nu(2), - nu(2), and nu(3), + nu(3), - nu(3), of the (16)O(3), and the nu(3) fundamentals of the isotopic species (16)O(18)O(16)O and (16)O(16)O(18)O, can contribute significant absorption for long paths such as obtained in this experiment. Such long paths also give rise to significant absorptions by the nu(3) - nu(1) and the nu(3) - 2nu(2) degrees bands of CO(2). Including these weak bands in the calculated spectra leads to good agreement with the observed data.

Variation of the Infrared Solar Spectrum Between 700 cm(-1) and 2240 cm(-1) with Altitude.

A grating spectrometer with a Ge: Cu detector was flown on three balloon flights. Spectra in the 4-14.3-micro region were obtained at various altitudes from the ground through 30 km with a resolution considerably better than that achieved in previous flights. Some of the spectra were obtained over long paths at float altitude, during the sunset. Data from these flights are presented with a discussion of the significant features of the observed absorptions. Special emphasis is put on the new features observed during the sunset.