Annotation Rodgers (U. of Oxford) provides graduate students and other researchers a background to the inverse problem and its solution, with applications relating to atmospheric measurements. He introduces the stages in the reverse order than the usual approach in order to develop the learner's intuition about the nature of the inverse problem. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Remote sounding of the atmosphere has proved to be a fruitful method of obtaining global information about the atmospheres of the earth and other planets. This book treats comprehensively the inverse problem of remote sounding, and discusses a wide range of retrieval methods for extracting atmospheric parameters of interest from the quantities (thermal emission, for example) that can be measured remotely. Inverse theory is treated in depth from an estimation-theory point of view, but practical questions are also emphasized, such as designing observing systems to obtain the maximum quantity of information, efficient numerical implementation of algorithms for processing large quantities of data, error analysis and approaches to the validation of the resulting retrievals. The book is targeted at graduate students as well as scientists.

Inversion Methods in Atmospheric Remote Sounding contains the technical proceedings of the First International Interactive Workshop on Inversion Methods in Atmospheric Remote Sounding, held in Williamsburg, Virginia, on December 15-17, 1976. The papers review the state of the art in inversion methods used in retrieving information about the atmosphere from remotely sensed data. The mathematical theory of inversion methods is described, together with the application of these methods to the remote sounding of atmospheric temperature, relative humidity, and gaseous and aerosol constituents. Comprised of 21 chapters, this book begins with an introduction to methods for solving problems in radiative transfer and multiple scattering, followed by a discussion on the problem of radiative transfer in a scattering plane-parallel atmosphere. The next section is devoted to the mathematical theory of inversion methods and considers some aspects of the inversion problem in remote sensing, along with the relaxation method for the inverse solution of nonlinear and linear transfer equations. The final section explores inversion methods in gaseous, thermal, and aerosol atmospheres, covering topics such as the Backus-Gilbert theory and its application to retrieval of ozone and temperature profiles; inversion of scattered radiance horizon profiles for gaseous concentrations and aerosol parameters; and inversion of passive microwave remote sensing data from satellites. This monograph will be of interest to scientists from universities, government agencies, and research laboratories.

The retrieval problems arising in atmospheric remote sensing belong to the class of the - called discrete ill-posed problems. These problems are unstable under data perturbations, and can be solved by numerical regularization methods, in which the solution is stabilized by taking additional information into account. The goal of this research monograph is to present and analyze numerical algorithms for atmospheric retrieval. The book is aimed at physicists and engineers with some ba- ground in numerical linear algebra and matrix computations. Although there are many practical details in this book, for a robust and ef?cient implementation of all numerical algorithms, the reader should consult the literature cited. The data model adopted in our analysis is semi-stochastic. From a practical point of view, there are no signi?cant differences between a semi-stochastic and a determin- tic framework; the differences are relevant from a theoretical point of view, e.g., in the convergence and convergence rates analysis. After an introductory chapter providing the state of the art in passive atmospheric remote sensing, Chapter 2 introduces the concept of ill-posedness for linear discrete eq- tions. To illustrate the dif?culties associated with the solution of discrete ill-posed pr- lems, we consider the temperature retrieval by nadir sounding and analyze the solvability of the discrete equation by using the singular value decomposition of the forward model matrix.

Only satellite-based remote-sensing instruments generate the wealth of global data on the concentrations of atmospheric constituents that are necessary for long-term monitoring of the atmosphere. This set of courses and lectures sponsored by ICTP in Trieste focuses on remote sensing for atmospheric applications and inverse methods to assess atmospheric components, gases, aerosols and clouds. It addresses primarily graduate students and young researchers in the atmospheric sciences but will be useful for all those wishing to study various techniques for exploring the atmosphere by remote sensing. Contributions span topics such as on IGOS (Integrated Global Observing Strategy), electromagnetic scattering by non-spherical particles, forward-modelling requirements and the information content problem, Earth radiation, and aerosol monitoring by LIDAR.

Use of occultation methodology for observing the Earth's atmosphere and climate has become so broad as to comprise solar, lunar, stellar, navigation and satellite crosslink occultation methods. The atmospheric parameters obtained extend from the fundamental variables temperature, density, pressure, water vapor, and ozone via a multitude of trace gas species to particulate species such as aerosols and cloud liquid water. Ionospheric electron density is sensed as well. The methods all share the key properties of self-calibration, high accuracy and vertical resolution, global coverage, and (if using radio signals) all-weather capability. Occultation data are thus of high value in a wide range of fields including climate monitoring and research, atmospheric physics and chemistry, operational meteorology, and other fields such as space weather and planetary science. This wide area of variants and uses of the occultation method has led to a diversi fication of the occultation-related scientific community into a range of different sub-communities, however. The 1st International Workshop on Occultations for Probing Atmosphere and Cli mate-OPAC-1- held September 16-20, 2002, in Graz, Austria, has set in ex actly at this point. OPAC-1 aimed at providing a casual forum and stimulating at mosphere fertilizing scientific discourse, co-operation initiatives, and mutual learning and support amongst members of all the different sub-communities. The workshop was attended by about 80 participants from 17 different countries who actively contributed to a scientific programme of high quality and to an excellent workshop atmosphere, which was judged by the participants to have fully met the aims expressed.