SCIAMACHY: Mission Objectives and Measurement Modes

SCIAMACHY (Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography) is a spectrometer designed to measure sunlight transmitted, reflected, and scattered by the earth’s atmosphere or surface in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared wavelength region (240–2380 nm) at moderate spectral resolution (0.2–1.5 nm, λ/Δλ ≈ 1000–10 000). SCIAMACHY will measure the earthshine radiance in limb and nadir viewing geometries and solar or lunar light transmitted through the atmosphere observed in occultation. The extraterrestrial solar irradiance and lunar radiance will be determined from observations of the sun and the moon above the atmosphere. The absorption, reflection, and scattering behavior of the atmosphere and the earth’s surface is determined from comparison of earthshine radiance and solar irradiance. Inversion of the ratio of earthshine radiance and solar irradiance yields information about the amounts and distribution of important atmospheric constituents and the spectral reflectance (or albedo) of the earth’s surface. SCIAMACHY was conceived to improve our knowledge and understanding of a variety of issues of importance for the chemistry and physics of the earth’s atmosphere (troposphere, stratosphere, and mesosphere) and potential changes resulting from either increasing anthropogenic activity or the variability of natural phenomena. Topics of relevance for SCIAMACHY are tropospheric pollution arising from industrial activity and biomass burning, troposphere–stratosphere exchange processes, stratospheric ozone chemistry focusing on the understanding of the ozone depletion in polar regions as well as in midlatitudes, and solar variability and special events such as volcanic eruptions, and related regional and global phenomena. Inversion of the SCIAMACHY measurements enables the amounts and distribution of the atmospheric constituents O3, O2, O2(1Δ), O4, BrO, OClO, ClO, SO2, H2CO, NO, NO2, NO3, CO, CO2, CH4, H2O, N2O, and aerosol, as well as knowledge about the parameters pressure p, temperature T, radiation field, cloud cover, cloud-top height, and surface spectral reflectance to be determined. A special feature of SCIAMACHY is the combined limb–nadir measurement mode. The inversion of the combination of limb and nadir measurements will enable tropospheric column amounts of O3, NO2, BrO, CO, CH4, H2O, N2O, SO2, and H2CO to be determined.