INVERSION OF OPTICAL-DATA TO OBTAIN A MICROMETEOROLOGICAL TEMPERATURE PROFILE

Optical data containing the relative positions of an observer, a target, and an image of the target are inverted with a set of nonlinear polynomial equations to obtain a temperature profile near the earth’s surface. The temperature that is predicted at a specific height with the inversion of optical data is verified with a temperature that was measured with thermocouples when the optical data were collected. When the maximum uncertainty of ±0.04°C in the measured temperature is known, the largest difference between the measured temperature and the temperature obtained with the optical data is within ±0.02°C. © 1979 Optical Society of America.