Simultaneous derivation of intensities and weighting functions in a general pseudo-spherical discrete ordinate radiative transfer treatment

The retrieval of atmospheric constituents from measurements of backscattered light requires a radiative transfer forward model that can simulate both intensities and weighting functions (partial derivatives of intensity with respect to atmospheric parameters being retrieved). The radiative transfer equation is solved in a multi-layer multiply-scattering atmosphere using the discrete ordinate method. In an earlier paper dealing with the upwelling top-of-the-atmosphere radiation field, it was shown that a full internal perturbation analysis of the plane-parallel discrete ordinate solution leads in a natural way to the simultaneous generation of analytically-derived weighting functions with respect to a wide range of atmospheric variables. In the present paper, a more direct approach is used to evaluate explicitly all partial derivatives of the intensity field. A generalization of the post-processing function is developed for the derivation of weighting functions at arbitrary optical depth and stream angles for both upwelling and downwelling directions. Further, a complete treatment is given for the pseudo-spherical approximation of the direct beam attenuation; this is an important extension to the range of viewing geometries encountered in practical radiative transfer applications. The numerical model LIDORT developed for this work is able to generate intensities and weighting functions for a wide range of retrieval scenarios, in addition to the passive remote sensing application from space. We present a number of examples in an atmosphere with O-3 absorption in the UV, for satellite (upwelling radiation) and ground-based (downwelling radiation) applications. In particular, we examine the effect of various pseudo-spherical parameterizations on backscatter intensities and weighting functions with respect to O-3 volume mixing ratio. In addition, the use of layer-integrated multiple scatter output from the model is shown to be important for satellite instruments with wide-angle off nadir viewing geometries. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.