Retrieval of the atmospheric compounds using a spectral optical thickness information

A spectral inversion technique for retrieval of the atmospheric gases and aerosols contents is proposed. This technique based upon the preliminary measurement or retrieval of the spectral optical thickness. The existence of a priori information about the spectral cross sections for some of the atmospheric components allows the authors to retrieve the relative contents of these components in the atmosphere. The method of “smooth” filtration makes possible the estimation of the contents of atmospheric aerosols with known cross sections. It also makes it possible to filter out other aerosols; this is done independently from their relative contribution to the optical thickness