WE PROPOSE HERE TO OBTAIN FULLY THREE-DIMENSIONAL FIELDS OF TEMPERATURE FROM OBSERVED SATELLITE RADIANCES BY USING VARIATIONAL METHODS WHICH GENERALIZE WAHBA AND WENDELBERGER (1980).

WE PROPOSE HERE TO OBTAIN FULLY THREE-DIMENSIONAL FIELDS OF TEMPERATURE FROM OBSERVED SATELLITE RADIANCES BY USING VARIATIONAL METHODS WHICH GENERALIZE WAHBA AND WENDELBERGER (1980). WE RECOGNIZE FROM THE START THAT RADIANCES OR THE EQUIVALENT BRIGHTNESS TEMPERATURES ARE ONLY PROXY DATA FOR TROPOSPHERIC TEMPERATURES AND THAT THE DERIVED TEMPERATURES WIL DEPEND UPON THE A PRIORI INFORMATION INCLUDED IN THE INVERSION PROCESS. IT FOLLOWS THAT THE BEST COMBINATION OF ALL A PRIORI INFORMATION AVAILABLE SHOULD BE USED. THE VARIATIONAL FORMALISM ALLOWS A VARIETY OF DIFFERENT INFORMATION TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE INVERSION PROCESS IN A NATURAL WAY. IN CALCULATING THREE-DIMENSIONAL RETRIEVALS, ONE CAN FULLY USE THE FACT THAT THE TEMPERATURE FIELD IS SMOOTH HORIZONTALLY. THIS A PRIORI KNOWLEDGE HELPS TO OBTAIN MAXIMUM VERTICAL RESOLUTION, FILTER CLOUD EFFECTS, MINIMIZE THE EFFECTS OF INSTRUMENT NOISE, AND OBTAIN HORIZONTALLY COHERENT RETRIEVALS OF TEMPERATURE AND IMPROVEDRETRIEVALS OF CLOUD PARAMETERS.